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DISCOURSE 



bELIVERED BEFORE 



THE MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 



At ITS ANNUAL MEETING, 



SEPTEMBER 6th, 1846. 



•J 

BY GEORGE FOLSOM, 



" But I doubt not * * * it will prove a very flourishing place, and be replenished 
with many falre Towns and Cities, it being a Province both fruitful and pleasant." 

F. Gouges. Description of the Province of Maine. 



PORTLANDi X^ 

PUBLISHED FOR THE SOCIETY 




1847. 



f^''- 



fjf 



i^l 






At a meeting of the Maine Historical Society, holden at Brunswick, Sept. 
6th, 1846, 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be presented to the Hon. George 
FoLSOM, of New York, for his highly valuable and interesting Discourse, deliv- 
ered before them this day, and that he be respectfully requested to furnish a 
copy of the same for publication. 

JOS. IVIcKEEN, Eecording Secretary. 



DISCOURSE. 



Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Histori- 
cal Society : 

Indifference to the past, considered as a na- 
tional characteristic, is a mark of rudeness and inciv- 
ihzation. A purely savage people live only in the 
present moment. The satisfaction of immediate 
wants, the enjoyment of the passing hour, make 
up the sum total of their existence. They have no 
monuments of former generations, and they leave 
none of themselves. To them, the deeds of forefa- 
thers, the exploits of other times, the good or evil 
that marked an earher day, afford no examples and 
impart no instruction. It is as if none had lived 
before them, and none were to come after. Equally 
indifferent to the future, they make no provision for 
a day beyond that which already dawns upon them, 
and care as little for the next generation as the last. 

Such are mankind in their natural and uncultivated 
state. But as they emerge into the light of civiliza- 
tion, a change comes over the scene. An enlarged 
horizon exhibits new objects to the view. Their 
gaze is no longer fixed, animal-like, upon the narrow 
compass of earth that suffices for present indulgence ; 
but looking upward towards Heaven, as well at 
around upon the outspreading landscape, they begin 
1 



6 DISCOURSE. 

to feel the sublimity of their intellectual nature, and 
to call into exercise the faculties that God has endow- 
ed them with, but of which they were before uncon- 
scious. Now awakens the thirst of knowledge, — the 
strong and insatiable desire to grasp at something 
beyond mere existence. The well-spring of thought 
bubbles up, stimulating and fertilizing the perceptions, 
and a thousand imaginations and conceits pour forth 
in undisciplined confusion. Reason and reflection 
soon, however, assert their rights, and the plastic hand 
of cultivation moulds all into shape and order. 

The present moment is now no longer the limit of 
of the mind's ken. It supplies too gross a material 
for the exercise of the awakened powers, and the 
imagination scorns to feed upon it. Stretching back 
to the past, or diving deep into futurity, it delights 
to take to itself the wings of fancy, and revel and 
riot amid the scenes that bear it away from the sen- 
sualities and follies, the cares and distractions, of the 
fleeting moment. It conjures up the realities of a 
by-gone age, and seeks to learn the motives, the 
principles, the habits, both of body and mind, and all 
tliat was comprised in the career of those who once 
lived and flourished, but have long slumbered in the 
Valley of Silence. It was at this stage of progress^ 
that the Father of History unfolded his luminous page, 
and recited to his assembled countrymen the glorious 
deeds and chivalric achievements of their departed 
sires, or traced the daring exploits of the half-fabulous 
heroes who made Greece the arena for the display 
of superhuman courage and unrivalled prowess. It 
is needless to add that the land rung with praises of 
the man, who had thus successfully appealed both to 



DISCOURSE. I 

the new-born thirst for historic lore, and to that other 
and scarcely less civihzed sentiment, the love of 
one's own native land. 

Advancing improvement strengthens the desire to 
converse with departed excellence, and national pride 
leads to the erection of lasting monuments to perpet- 
uate its fame. Memorials are sought on every hand, 
but, alas ! it too often happens that inattention or 
neglect, on the part of contemporaries, occasions the 
loss of what a subsequent age would be sure to prize as 
the precious rehques of genius or distinguished merit. 
How little is known, for instance, of the private his- 
tory of England's great dramatist, and with what 
eagerness are the faintest traces of his every-day life 
sought and treasured up ! Yet with a little care ex- 
ercised either in his own day, or by those of the next 
succeeding generation, enough might have been pre- 
served to enable his admirers, in all ages, to form a 
correct conception of the life and personal character 
of the man whose genius is the proudest boast of 
English literature. 

Great national events likewise often fail of a proper 
appreciation from the want of due care in preserving 
the memorials of their occurrence. To the historical 
student many cases in point will suggest themselves. 
The history of American discovery may be mention- 
ed as singularly deficient in the requisite materials 
for its elucidation. The important voyages of Sebas- 
tian Cabot and Americus Vespucius are involved in 
much obscurity from this cause, and the chart or map 
drawn by the former to illustrate his discoveries, has 
long been classed among the things " lost on earth." 
Navarrete, in Spain, has done much to rescue from 



8 DISCOURSE. 

oblivion the services rendered by his countrymen, in 
the discovery of the New World ; but had the work 
been commenced at an earlier period, the results 
would doubtless have been far more satisfactory and 
complete. 

In this country, something has already been done 
towards the preservation of the materials of history ; 
and it is gratifying to find an increased interest awa- 
kened in the subject, and a higher appreciation of its 
importance entertained, at the present time, than at 
any former period. It marks to some extent the cha- 
racter of the age, and affords, according to the gene- 
ral views just presented, an indication of progress, 
a sign of intellectual growth, in our social character. 
The Documentary History, now in the course of pub- 
lication under the auspices of the general government, 
is a work of which any country might be proud ; 
and if completed according to the plan of its intel- 
ligent editor,* it will be a noble monument to the 
liberality and enlightened patriotism of our national 
legislature. The states individually have also awa- 
kened to the importance of collecting and preserving 
their public records, and in some of the older com- 
monwealths considerable appropriations have been 
made of late years to defray the expense of arranging 
and making secure what is too often regarded as the 
useless lumber of antiquity. It is certainly desirable, 
in every point of view, economical as well as histori- 
cal, that a similar course should be pursued in the 
pubhc offices of all our states ; for often the preser- 
vation of a single document may lead to results of 

* Peter Force, Esq., late Mayor of the city of Washington. 



DISCOURSE. 9 

greater value than all the labor and expense re 
quired to effect this object. 

The publications of the English Record Commis- 
sions are an example of what may be accomplished 
by a great and enlightened nation for the preservation 
of its public records. The work was commenced in 
the year 1800, and was continued nearly forty years, 
during which time there were printed of the ancient 
records of the kingdom, commencing with tlie reign 
of William the Conqueror, one hundred and eleven 
volumes, of which eighty-six are in folio ; and the 
amount expended by the government in connexion with 
this object, during that period, is estimated at nearly 
a milhon of pounds sterling, or about five millions 
of dollars. The same liberal and munificent spirit that 
has led to the achievement of this great enterprise, 
not satisfied with having provided for the security of 
the documents contained in those massive volumes, 
by their publication, has also governed their distribu- 
tion ; for copies were sent to most of the colleges 
and many other literary institutions of this country, 
which certainly had no claim upon the liberality of 
the British government. This great work has raised 
another monument to the far-famed national spirit of 
that monarchy, which ever seeks, by appropriate 
means, to foster and sustain the reputation of her sons 
and the glory of her ancient name. 

The long connexion of the people of this country 
with the European governments, of which they were 
colonies, renders our own archives incomplete with- 
out resorting to those abroad; and hence some of 
the State Legislatures have so far interested them- 
selves in this subject, as to send agents to the mother 
1* 



10 DISCOURSE. 

countries to procure copies of documents illustrative 
of their early history. The Legislature of New York 
appropriated about fifteen thousand dollars for this 
purpose, and her Agent was employed three years 
in the ])erformance of his labors, during which time 
he examined the archives of London, Paris, and the 
Hague, and brought home an invaluable collection of 
State Papers, and other documents of great value and 
interest. Georgia, likewise, with commendable liber- 
ality, has instituted a similar agency abroad, which re- 
sulted in the acquisition of twenty-two folio manuscript 
volumes, obtained from the English offices, and deposi- 
ted by the direction of the Legislature with the Histor- 
ical Society of that state. Massachusetts, distinguish- 
ed for her enlightened legislation, and ever alive to 
whatever promotes the cause of learning and educa- 
tion, has established a similar agency in London and 
Paris ; and it is believed that many other States are 
prepared to adopt the same course. 

But the most striking evidence of the attention now 
bestowed on the subject of historical investigation 
in this country, is found in the organization of His- 
torical Societies throughout the Union, having in view 
the specific object of collecting and preserving the ma- 
terials of history. The Massachusetts society was the 
first in the field : it has already published twenty- 
nme volumes of Collections, containing a prodigious 
mass of information, relating chiefly to the history 
of New England. One of its founders, and its first 
President, was a native of this State ; I refer to the 
late James Sullivan, then a resident of Boston, and 
afterwards Governor of Massachusetts. This gentle- 
man also produced a history of this State, then the 



DISCOURSE. 11 

District of Maine, which although far from being a 
faultless work, was highly creditable to the industry 
and patriotism of its Author. Associated with Sulh- 
van in founding and sustaining that Society, were 
Belknap, Eliot, Freeman, Minot, Tudor, Thach- 

ER, KiRKLAND, WiNTHROP, DavIS, QuINCY, SaVAGE, 

Bradford, Harris, and others, who formed a pha- 
lanx of intellectual strength and erudition not often 
surpassed.* 

The New York Historical Society was founded at 
a somewhat later period than that of Massachusetts, 
but was the next in order of time, and is now in the 
forty-second year of its existence. Among those 
who were among its earliest members, (but now de- 
ceased,) may be named Egbert Benson, John Pintard, 
Rufus King, De Witt Clinton, Dr. Hosack, Bishop 
Hobart, Daniel D. Tompkins, Dr. Mitchell, Brockholst 
Livingston, and Peter A. Jay. The President of this 
society, at the present time, is the Hon. Albert Galla- 
tin, who at a very advanced age finds solace in hterary 
pursuits, to which his time is chiefly devoted.f The 
Library of this institution is large, and rich in American 
history ; and is the resort of historical students from 

* See an excellent sketch of the history of the Massachusetts Society, by the 
Rev. William Jenks, D. D., in the twenty-seventh volume of its Collections. 
Dr. Jeuks states, that the Kev. Dr. Belknap, author of a well known and highly 
esteemed History of New Hampshire, " has been uniformly regarded as the prin- 
cipal founder of that Society." 

t This gentleman is also President of the American Ethnological Society, es- 
tablished at New York. The first volume of the Transactions of that learned 
association appeared last year, consisting chiefly of an elaborate essay upon the 
languages, astronomy, &c. of the ancient inhabitants of Mexico and Central 
America, by Mr. Gallatin. This remarkable work, involving much abstruse 
learning, and acute discrimination, is one of the greatest trophies of an intellec- 
tual old age the world ever saw ; having been composed by the venerable author 
in his eighty-fifth year. 



12 DISCOURSE. 

all parts of the country. Its members are numerous, 
and the papers read at its monthly meetings usually 
attract a large concourse of persons of literary taste 
and habits. Besides its volumes of Collections, this 
Society publishes an amial report of its transactions, 
containing the Papers read during the year« 

I have spoken more particularly of the societies 
of Massachusetts and New York, as being the oldest 
in the country ; but there are many others of a more 
recent date, which are equally efficient and useful. 
They bring together much of the learning and talent 
of their respective States, and afford to politicians a 
neutral ground on which they can meet without dan- 
ger of hostile collision ; for surely nothing is better 
fitted to inspire proper feelings in the hearts of the 
living, than the contemplation of the virtues of those 
who have preceded them on the stage of active life, 
and patriotism itself is kindled by surveying the tro- 
phies and memorials which a grateful country exhibits 
to exalt the fame of her distinguished sons. We have 
no Westminster Abbey to perpetuate the remem- 
brance of valor, genius, or beneficence ; even 
Washington sleeps in a common tomb with his kin- 
dred, and of his distinguished associates in the field, 
how few of us can tell where their remains now repose ! 
If Historical Associations should do no more than 
point out the resting places of departed merit, dis- 
encumbering the humble tomb-stone of its moss, and 
freshening the sod that lies upon the grave of genius, 
they will perform a truly grateful though it may be 
humble office, and be the means of holding up to 
public view examples worthy of imitation. 

The Society I have the honor to address was insti- 



DISCOURSE. 13 

tuted in 1822, and numbered among its early friends 
and founders some of the most eminent names in the 
State. It has already rendered good service by the 
publication of a volume that sheds much light on the 
early history of a large portion of Maine ; and should 
its organization give birth to nothing beyond that vol- 
ume, so replete with the fruits of patient research, its 
existence would be marked by no idle or unsatisfactory 
result. But there is no reason it should stop here ; 
there is much more work for it to perform before its 
destiny be accomphshed. There is no part of our 
country whose history is more diversified, and in- 
structive, than these Northern shores ; noiie less 
known, or full of more exciting incident. The long 
subjection of Maine to a rival colony, gave it less inter- 
est and importance in the eyes of the general histori- 
an than it deserved to possess ; but having at length 
resumed its original independence, with the means of 
developing its vast resources, and extending its 
wealth and population, this State must hereafter oc- 
cupy a prominent position in our country, and a con- 
spicuous place on the page of history. 

I propose in the remainder of this discourse to call 
your attention to some of the facts connected with 
the early discovery and settlement of Maine, and the 
character of those who were most active in the work 
of colonization. 

To Columbus belongs the glory of having solved 
the great problem, as to the existence of lands in the 
west ; but in his estimation, the discovery owed its 
chief importance to the supposed identity of those 
lands with the opulent, but remote regions of Cathay, 
or China, and the Indies. Impressed with this idea. 



14 DISCOURSE. 

the great navigator, even in his last voyage, took with 
him persons skilled in the Arabic language, for the 
purpose of being enabled to hold intercourse with the 
Khan of Tartary, as the Emperor of China was then 
styled, whose dominions he expected to reach by sail- 
ing west from Hispaniola. This voyage terminated 
twelve years after the first discovery, and resulted 
only in the exploration of the coast of Central Ame- 
rica, from the bay of Honduras to the Spanish Main. 
The same idea led to the discovery of the continent 
of North America, by the Cabots in 1497. The ac- 
count of the matter given by Sebastian Cabot, who 
was the master spirit on that occasion, is that the 
news of the discoveries made by Columbus, caused a 
great sensation at the court of Henry VH., who then 
reigned in England, and it was thought a wonderful 
thing, " more divine than human, to sail by the west 
to the lands in the east, where spices grow." The fame 
of this achievement kindled a desire in his own mind 
to attempt something of a similar character, and 
" understanding," he says, " by reason of the sphere, 
that if I should sail by the northwest, I should by a 
shorter tract come into India, I thereupon caused the 
king to be advertised of my device," 6zc. He after- 
terwards adds, " I began therefore to sail towards the 
northwest, not thinking to find any other land than that 
of Cathay, and from thence to turn towards India ; 
but after certain days, I found that the land ran towards 
the north, which to me was a great displeasure." * 

*Hakluyt. Thus Lord Bacon characterizes Cabot's discovery as " a memo- 
rable accident," and the great navigator he describes " as one Sebastian Gabato, 
a Venetian, dwelling at Bristol, a man seen and expert in cosmography and na- 
vigation." Hist. Henry VII. 



DISCOURSE. 15 

The accounts of this voyage, and of a second in 
in the same direction, made by Sebastian Cabot the 
following year, are extremely meagre ; no details of 
them were published by the navigator himself, and 
after his death, his original maps and papers disap- 
peared in a mysterious manner. But there is suffi- 
cient evidence to show that he first discovered land, 
after pursuing a northwest course from Bristol Chan- 
nel, on the coast of Labrador, in latitude about 56**^, 
on the 24th of June, the day of St. John the Baptist. 
In honor of the day, he gave the name of St. John to 
a small island, on the same coast, which has latterly 
disappeared from our maps. It is now supposed that 
Cabot, after making this discovery, continued his 
course to the north, as high as latitude 67^, and enter- 
ed Hudson's bay ; finding the sea still open, he said 
that he might and would have gone to Cathay, had it 
not been for the mutinous conduct of the master and 
mariners, who compelled him to retrace his steps. 
The ship in which he sailed was called the Matthew, 
of Bristol. 

Obtaining a new patent from the king, he again 
sailed the following year with several vessels and 
about 300 persons, for the purpose, it is supposed, of 
forming a colony. It was during this voyage that he 
sailed alono- the whole coast of the United States, and 
laid the foundation of the English claim to the country. 

Some particulars of these voyages are given by 
Peter Martyr, the celebrated Italian, a resident in 
Spain at that period, who derived his information from 
Cabot himself, when a guest at his house. According 
to this writer, Cabot called the lands he had discov- 
ered " Baccalaos, a name," says Martyr, " given by 



16 DISCOURSE. 

the inhabitants to a large kind of fish, which appear- 
ed in such shoals, that they sometimes interrupted the 
progress of the ships." This word is now used in 
several European languages, to denote the codfish, 
either in its natural or dried state. It is found on 
some of the oldest maps of North America, as applied 
by Cabot to the countries he discovered, but is gene- 
rally restricted to the island since called Newfound- 
land.* 

The name of Labrador is Portuguese, having been 
given with some others by a Portuguese navigator, 
Gaspar de Cortereal, who visited the same coast in 
1501, and left his own name applied to an extensive 
tract of country on the borders of Hudson's Bay, long 
known as Terra Corterealis. 

The name Norumbega was subsequently used to 
designate nearly the whole of the Continent north of 
Florida. This is supposed to be an Indian word, 
with a Latin termination,t and was generally used by 
the French, until it was superseded by another Indian 
name, which the French wrote Cadie, or Acadie, and 
sometimes with the Latin termination, as Cadia, or 
Acadia, but which the English changed into a less 
poetical word, by writing Quocldi/ instead of Cadie-I^. 

Norumbega, at a later period, was confined 
to the country lying north of Virginia ; thus on a 

* Thus Cortes, writing in 1524, proposes to explore "the northern coast of 
Florida as far as the Bacallaos." Despatches, p. 417. 

t Sometimes written Arambec, or Arambeag. It is remarked by Sullivan 
that the Indian word eag signifies land, and he thus accounts for its frequent oc- 
currence in local names. Father Rale, in his Dictionary of the Abenaqui dialect, 
gives the words ki and kik, (kee and keek,) as meaning land ; but Gallatin's 
Synopsis of Indian languages, (Long Island Vocabulary,) has " keagii, or eage ;" 
the difference is, however, only in the orthography ; the words are the same. 

t The bay of Passamaquoddy, is on the French maps named Pesmo-cadie. 



DISCOURSE. 17 

map contained in Wytfliet's supplement to Ptolemy, 
published as late as 1603, it has New France on the 
north, and Virginia on the south. A city of the same 
name is also laid down on this map, situated upon a 
large river, supposed to be the Penobscot. A map 
of North America, contained in the. Novus Orbis 
of De Laet, published in 1633, distributes the country 
into the following divisions, commencing on the 
north : New France, Cadie, Norumbega, (comprising 
the territory between the St. Croix and Kennebec,) 
New England, New Netherland, Virginia, and Flor- 
ida. Purchas in describing the coast of Maine, refers 
to former accounts of " a great town and fair river 
called Norumbega," and adds, that the French discov- 
erers deny the existence of any such place, affirming 
that there are only cabins, covered with bark or skins, 
to be found in that region, and that the true name of 
the village and river is Pentegoet, a name long ap- 
plied by the French to the Penobscot. This more 
accurate account of the matter was the result of visits 
to that river, by the French, at the period of their 
first settlements in Nova Scotia. 

According to Hakluyt, and other writers, the In- 
dians had a general designation for the territory com- 
prised within the forty-third and forty-fifth degrees 
of north latitude, almost the precise limits of the sea 
coast of Maine, and extending forty leagues into the 
interior. This territory they called Mavooshen, 
" which," says Hakluyt, " was discovered by the Eng- 
lish in the years 1602, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9," implying 
that voyages were made to it by the English in each 
of those years, a statement fully confirmed by evi- 
dence from other sources. The government of all 
2 



1 8 DISCOURSE. 

the Indians dwelling within these limits, and of others 
as far south as Massachusetts, was in the hands of a 
single Cacique, or Sachem, to whom the inferior 
Sagamores of the various tribes owed allegiance. 
His title as given by the English Navigators who 
first visited the country, was Bashaba, and Dr. Bel- 
knap remarks that " we have no account of any other 
Indian chief in these northern parts of America, 
whose authority was so extensive."* The place of 
his residence was probably on the banks of the Pen- 
obscot, and as it was also the seat of his government, 
the fabulous accounts of a large city in that quarter 
may have arisen from exaggerated descriptions of this 
humble capital of the Bashaba's dominions. 

Notwithstanding the discoveries of the Cabots, 
with the exception of one or two expeditions from 
Bristol, fitted out by the enterprising merchants of 
that city, no subsequent eff'orts were made in Eng- 
land for a long period to follow up what had been so 
well begun. During the protracted reign of Henry 
VIII., those important discoveries seem to have been 
forgotten ; nor was their memory revived in the 
succeeding reigns of Edward VI. and Queen Mary. 
The English merchants were satisfied with quietly 
despatching their frail barks to the fishing grounds, 
and drawing from the ocean-depths the more availa- 
ble sources of commercial thrift. Sebastian Cabot 
had gone into the service of Spain, and more than 
seventy years elapsed before the attention of the Eng- 
Ush goverment was again directed to the American 
coast. During all this long period, not an English 

* 1 Am. Bioff. 351. 



DISCOURSE. 19 

colonist was landed upon any portion of the Ameri- 
can continent, to mark the possession of the country 
on the part of those who afterwards claimed an ex- 
clusive right to every inch of the soil from Florida to 
Greenland. The maxim in those days was, Veni, 
Vidi, Hahui ; or in the language of the poet, 

"The time once was here, to all be it known, 
When all a man sailed by, or saw, was his own." 

At length, towards the close of the sixteenth centu- 
ry. Sir Humphry Gilbert, one of the most accom- 
phshed men in England, undertook an expedition to 
Newfoundland ; and his half brother. Sir Walter 
Raleigh, despatched another for tlie discovery of land 
to the north of Florida. But these efforts, however 
honorable to their authors, proved disastrous in the 
end. The wretched colonists planted b}^ Sir Walter 
on the meagre coast of North Carolina were finally 
abandoned to their fate, and, cut oft' from all commu- 
nication with the civilized world, are supposed to 
have perished of hunger, or by the hands of savages. 
The only result of any value or importance that 
followed the spirited exertions of that gifted genius, 
at whose private expense the attempt was made, was 
the opening of the hitherto unexplored wilds of Vir- 
ginia to the knowledge of the world, which led to 
more successful efforts to colonize that portion of 
our country at a subsequent date. 

The French were equally unsuccessful during the 
same century in all their enterprises to the new- 
world ; not a single permanent settlement was effec- 
ted by them on any part of the American coast. 



20 DISCOURSE. 

Although repeated commissions were issued for the 
colonization of the country under the name of New 
France, the whole of North America, with the excep- 
tion of Florida and Mexico, continued an unbroken 
wilderness, without a single European family in all 
its extent, until the commencement of the seventeenth 
century. This vast and dreary solitude was first 
broken on the borders of this State, by the French 
colony of De Monts, who passed the winter of 1603-4 
on the island of St. Croix, situated in the river of 
the same name, on the line separating Maine from 
New Brunswick. 

The spirit of colonization received a new impulse 
in England at the same period. The numerous fish- 
ing voyages from the western ports, especially Bris- 
tol, Exeter, and Plymouth, had divested the ocean of 
Its terrors, and a visit to the American coast had 
become no unusual occurrence. In the summer of 
1602, a small party of colonists embarked from Fal- 
mouth, and arrived on the coast of Massachusetts ; 
having selected a location upon a small island near 
the southern shore of that State, to which they gave 
the name of Elizabeth island, they prepared to take 
up their abode there ; but when the ship was about 
to leave on its return to England, their hearts failed 
them, and they hastily abandoned the enterprise. 
But the pleasing accounts these persons gave of the 
country after their return, and the shortness of the 
voyage, produced a favorable impression at home, 
and encouraged other enterprises of a similar 
character. 

Richard Hakluyt, the author of the well known 
geographical work that bears his name, was at that 



DISCOURSE. 21 

time a prebendary of St. Augustine's Church at Bris- 
tol ; taking a hvely interest in promoting voyages of 
discovery to different parts of the globe, he induced 
the corporation of Bristol and some of the merchants 
of that city, to unite in fitting out a small expedition 
to America the following year. It consisted of two 
vessels named the Speedwell and the Discoverer, 
with a ship's company of about fifty persons, amongst 
whom were several who had been in the expedition 
of the previous year. The command was given to 
Martin Pring, an experienced seaman. The vessels 
were victualled for eight months, and provided with 
various kinds of clothing, hardware and trinkets, to 
trade with the natives. They sailed on the 10th of 
April, 1603, a few days after the death of Queen 
Elizabeth, and reached the American coast on the 
7th of June, between the 43d and 44th degrees of 
latitude, among those numerous islands with which 
Penobscot bay is studded. There they found good 
anchorage and fishing, and gave the name of Fox 
islands to the group now bearing that name. 

Leaving that part of the coast. Captain Pring ran- 
ged to the southwest, and explored the inlets, rivers 
and bays, as far as the southern coast of Massachu- 
setts. Here he named a bay where they landed, " by 
the name of the Worshipful Master, John Whitson, 
then Mayor of the city of Bristol, and one of the 
chief adventurers." A pleasant hill adjoining they 
called Mount Aldworth, " for Master Robert Wald- 
worth's sake, a chief furtherer of the voyage, as well 
with his purse as his travel." Aldworth was a wealthy 
merchant of Bristol, who nearly thirty years after 
2* 



22 DISCOURSE. 

was one of the grantees at Pemaquid, in conjunction 
with Giles Elbridge. 

The object of this expedition having been accom- 
phshed by a careful survey of the country, and the 
vessels having received a full freight of sassafras and 
furs, Pring returned to England, Mdiere he arrived 
after a passage of five weeks. The whole voyage 
was completed in six months. 

The next visit to the coast of Maine was in 1605, 
by Capt. George Weymouth, who having in view the 
discovery of Virginia, came in sight of the American 
coast on the 14th of May, in the latitude of 41^^ 20'; 
but finding himself in the midst of shoals and break- 
ers, he made sail and at the distance of fifty leagues 
discovered several islands, to one of which he gave 
the name of St. George, which is still borne by a 
group of islands near the entrance to Penobscot 
river ; about three leagues from this island, Wey- 
mouth came into a harbor which he called Pentecost 
harbor, and sailed up a noble river, now supposed to 
have been the Penobscot. But the most important 
circumstance connected with this voyage is, that on 
his return to England, Weymouth took with him 
several Indians, three of whom on his arrival at Ply- 
mouth he committed to the charge of Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, Governor of the Fort at that place. " This 
accident," says Gorges, in his Description of New 
England, " must be acknowledged the means, under 
God, of putting on foot and giving life to all our 
plantations." He adds, that he kept these Indians 
for three years, and endeavored to elicit from them 
as much information as possible respecting their na- 
tive country ; and that the longer he conversed with 



DISCOURSE. 23 

them, the better hope they gave him of those parts 
where they inhabited, as well fitted for the purposes 
of settlement, " especially when he found what good- 
ly rivers, stately islands, and safe harbors those parts 
abounded with." 

Thus encouraged. Sir Ferdinando despatched a ship 
the following year, (1606), under the command of 
Henry Challong, accompanied by two of the natives, 
with directions to keep a northerly course to Cape 
Breton, and then to run to the southward, following 
the coast until he reached Penobscot bay. Instead, 
however, of following these directions, the ship's 
course was shaped for the West Indies ; this led to 
their capture by the Spaniards, who carried them into 
a Spanish port, where, says Sir Ferdinando, " their 
ship and goods were confiscated, themselves made 
prisoners, the voyage overthrown, and both the na- 
tives lost." This was one of those unfortunate mis- 
chances to which projectors of voyages were peculiarly 
exposed at that period, and which served to discourage 
enterprises of this character. 

Soon after the departure of Challong, another ship 
under the command of Capt. Thomas Hanham and 
Capt. Pring, was despatched from Bristol by Lord 
Chief Justice Popham, with instructions to meet 
Challong at the Penobscot ;* but not finding him at 
that place, they continued their course along shore, 
and made, says Gorges, " a perfect discovery of all 



* The Plymouth Company, in a relation or manifesto published by them at a 
subsequent period, say of this voyage, that " it pleased the noble Lord Chief Jus- 
tice, Sir John Popham, knight, to send out another ship, wherein Captain Thom- 
as Ilanham went commander, and Martine Prinne of Biistow master, with all 
necessarj' supplies, for the seconding of Captain Challons and his people ; who ar- 



24 DISCOURSE. 

those rivers and harbors indicated in their instructions, 
and brought with them the most exact discovery of 
that coast that ever came to my hands since." 

In the meantime, new and extensive plans were 
formed for the colonization of the country. Individ- 
ual efforts had been found insufficient for this purpose ; 
it was necessary to awaken the attention of the gov- 
ernment to its importance, and by securing the con- 
cm'rence of the king and persons of rank, to increase 
the general interest in the undertaking. Sir John 
Popham, the Lord Chief Justice of England, was at 
this period in the zenith of his power and influence ; 
venerable for his age, respected for his wise adminis- 
tration of the law, and strong in the confidence of 
the crown. He is accused by a recent writer* of 
having displayed too great alacrity in passing sentence 
upon Sir Walter Raleigh, when convicted of high 
treason ; but the conduct of the Chief Justice on that 
occasion seems to have been marked by forbearance 
throughout. Sir Walter was tried by a special com- 
mission of eleven persons, consisting of several Peers 
of the realm, the Chief Justice and three other 
Justices of the King's Bench and Common Pleas ; 
the jury was composed of knights and gentlemen of 
undoubted integrity. It might be difficult to convict 

riving at the place appointed, and not finding that Captain there, after they had 
made some discovery, and found the coasts, havens and harbors answerable to our 
desires, they returned." " Upon whose relations," say the Company " afterwards, 
the lord chief justice and we all waxed so confident of the business, that the year 
following every man of any worth, formerly interested in it, was willing to join 
in the charge for the sending over a competent number of people to lay the 
ground of a hopeful plantation." 

* Discourse on the Life and Character of Sir Walter Raleigh, delivered by J. 
Morrison Harris, before the Maryland Historical Society, May 19, 1846 ; an 
able and eloquent production. 



DISCOURSE. 25 

a person on the same evidence at the present day, 
and the trial was scandalously managed on the part 
of the prosecuting attorney, Sir Edward Coke, even 
for that period ; but Popham is not answerable for 
the imperfect state of the rules of evidence nearly 
two centuries and a half ago, nor for the brutal con- 
duct of Coke towards the unfortunate prisoner. When 
called upon to pronounce the judgment of the court, 
the Chief Justice manifested feelings of regret and 
sorrow, while at the same time he commented with 
firmness upon the enormity of the offence of which 
one so highly gifted, and so capable of serving the 
state, had been found guilty. " I thought," said the 
venerable judge, no doubt with tears in his eyes, " I 
thought I should never have seen this day, to have 
stood in this place to have given sentence of death 
against you ; because I thought it impossible that one 
of so great parts should have fallen so grievously." 
Again he says, " Now it resteth to pronounce the 
judgment, which I wish you had not been this day to 
have received of me. * * * I never saw the like 
trial, and hope I shall never see the like again." 

The Chief Justice was a native of the west of 
England, and at the period in question resided at 
Wellington, in Somersetshire, where he passed much 
of his time, and entertained with great hospitality and 
splendor. An old writer says of him, that he was the 
greatest housekeeper in England, and would have at 
his seat of Littlecote four or five Lords at a time.* 

In the same county, in tlie parish of Long Ashton, 
four or five miles from the city of Bristol, hved Sir 

* Aubrey's 1 ivesof Eminent Men, &c. Vol. 2d. p. 494. 



26 DISCOURSE. 

Ferdinando Gorges, the founder of this State, and the 
Lord Proprietor of the original Province of Maine. 
Among all the friends of American colonization in 
England, none displayed so much zeal, energy and 
perseverance, as Gorges ; when others were discour- 
aged by unpromising results, he maintained his reso- 
lution, and insisted upon the practicability of his plans. 
Nor was his mind diverted from this great object of 
his life, until the extremities to which the king was 
reduced, demanded the entire services of his loyal 
subjects. Gorges was then an old man ; full forty 
years had elapsed since his attention had been first 
directed to the shores of the New World, and he had 
expended many thousand pounds in furthering its 
discovery and settlement ; but when his services were 
required by his sovereign, with all the instincts of 
English loyalty, the old knight buckled on his sword, 
and followed and shared the fortunes of his royal 
master. 

Such were the two master spirits, who, in 1606, 
undertook the noble work of peopling these northern 
shores from the English coast, and who actually plant- 
ed, at that early period, a numerous and well-pro- 
vided colony on a spot a few miles only from the 
place where we are now assembled. It was sneer- 
ingly said by an old writer, in speaking of Chief 
Justice Popham, that " he not only punished male- 
factors, but provided for them, and first set up the 
discovery of New England to maintain and employ 
those that could not live honestly in the o/t/."* But 
the object was generally acknowledged to be one of 

* Lloyd's State Worthies, p. 46. 



DISCOURSE. 27 

great national importance in many points of view, and 
Popham and Gorges succeeded in enlisting many of 
the first names in England in behalf of the enter- 
prise. The plan was to establish two plantations, one 
in the north, and the other in the south, to be called 
the first and second colony ; the first to be under- 
taken by a London company, and the second, " by 
certain knights, gentlemen, and merchants in the 
west of England." The design received the appro- 
bation of the king, by whom a charter was accord- 
ingly issued, under which ihe first permanent colony 
was planted in South Virginia, by the London com- 
pany. The other associates of the second colony, 
who took the name of the Plymouth company, suc- 
ceeded in despatching two or three ships with a 
hundred colonists to North Virginia, as this part of 
the country was then called ; the expedition was com- 
manded by Capt. George Popham, a brother of the 
Chief Justice, and Capt. Raleigh Gilbert, a nephew 
of the unfortunate Sir Humphry, who led a colony to 
Newfoundland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Sir 
John, a brother of Raleigh Gilbert, was also a prom- 
inent member of the Plymouth Company. The ex- 
pedition sailed from Plymouth on the last day of May, 
in the year 1607, consisting of the ships called the 
Gift, and the Mary and John, and arrived on the 
coast of this State, near the island of Monhegan, 
early in August ; thence they proceeded to the mouth 
of the Kennebec, then called Sagadehock, where the 
the colonists disembarked, and selected a site for their 
future residence. There is some doubt as to the pre- 
cise spot on which they erected their temporary 
dwellincrs and defences, and organized the govern- 



28 DISCOURSE. 

ment of the colony ; Stage Island, Parker's Island, 
and a neighboring peninsula, have respectively en- 
joyed the reputation of having received this band of 
English exiles, who first sought a home on our 
shores ; but time has probably left no traces of the 
settlement. It is stated, however, by Purchas, on the 
authority of a letter from Capt. George Popham to 
Sir John Gilbert, cited by him, that " they chose 
the place of their plantation at the mouth of Saga- 
dahoc, in a westerly peninsula, where they heard a ser- 
mon, read their patent and laws, and built a fort." * 
The peninsula here mentioned was probably that now 
known as Cape Small Point, on which it would seem 
most probable that the colony was located, and Fort 
St. George, as it was called, built for the protection 
of the colonists. 

Measures were immediately taken to explore the 
neighboring country. For this purpose Raleigh Gil- 
bert was despatched, attended by one of the Penob- 
scot Indians that had been carried to England, two 
of whom accompanied the expedition. Gilbert was 
kindly treated by the natives with whom he met, and 
was invited to their cabins. They expressed a desire 
that the head of the colony should pay a visit to the 
Bashaba, the great chief, who dwelt on the banks of 
the Penobscot. Popham consented to go, and had 
proceeded some distance on his journey, when con- 
trary winds and bad weather compelled him to return. 
The Bashaba afterwards sent his son to visit the 
English chief, and open a trade in furs. Such was the 
state observed by this Indian potentate, that he ex- 

* This account was first published by Purchas in 1616. 



DISCOURSE. 29 

pected, says Gorges, " all strangers should have their 
address to him, and not he to them." 

The ships in which the colonists had arrived were 
not ready to return until the 15th of December, when 
a winter of great severity had set in. In England, as 
well as America, that winter was long remembered 
for its unusual degree of cold. The Thames at Lon- 
don was frozen over, and rendered passable upon the 
ice, a circumstance that is said rarely to occur. The 
Sagadehock colonists, unused to such rigorous wea- 
ther, attributed it to the fault of the climate, and 
many of them, disheartened by the farther prospect of 
being exposed to numerous privations on a strange 
and inhospitable coast, resolved to return to England 
with the ships. Of the whole number only forty-five, 
less than one half, had the courage to remain. 

In the meantime another ship with fresh supplies 
for the colony, was on its way to their relief. But 
she bore at the same time the melancholy intelligence 
of the death of Chief Justice Popham, which had oc- 
curred soon after the departure of the first ships from 
England, on the tenth of June, 1607. The Company 
in their manifesto speak of this event in the following 
manner : " In the meanwhile it pleased God to take 
from us this worthy member, the Lord Chief Justice, 
whose sudden death did so astonish the hearts of the 
most part of the adventurers, [the members of the 
Company in England,] as some grew cold, and some 
did wholly abandon the business. Yet Sir Francis 
Popham, his son, and certain of his private friends, 
and others of us, omitted not the next year (holding 
on our first resolution) to join in sending forth a new 
supply, which was accordingly performed. But the 
3 



30 DISCOURSE. 

ships arriving there, did not only bring uncomfortable 
news of the death of the lord chief justice, together 
with the death of Sir John Gilbert, the elder brother 
unto Captain Raleigh Gilbert, who at that time was 
president of that council [the colony] ; but found that 
the old Captain Popham was also dead ; who was the 
only man indeed that died there that winter, where- 
in they endured still greater extremities ; for that in 
the depth thereof, their lodgings and stores were 
burnt, and they thereby wondrously distressed." 

It is not strange that amidst so many discouraging 
circumstances, to which was added the necessity of 
Raleigh Gilbert's return to England on account of his 
brother's death, the remaining colonists should turn 
their eyes wishfully towards their English homes, and 
even resolve to abandon the enterprise. According- 
ly, when the ship that had brought them supplies was 
ready to sail, early in the spring of 1608, they all 
embarked and arrived safely in England. 

In justification of this abandonment of the countryy 
it was of course denounced by the returning emigrants 
as unfit to be inhabited by civilized beings ; as cold, 
barren and inhospitable. And yet the letters first 
received from the colony had represented it as 
" stored with grapes, white and red, good hops, onions, 
garlick, oaks, walnuts, and the soil good. They 
found oysters nine inches in length, and heard of 
others twice as great."* As to the climate, although 
the winter was one of almost unprecedented severity 
everywhere, it had produced no mortality among their 
number, unless the death of old Capt. Popham may 

* Purchas, 



DISCOURSE. 31 

be set down to that cause, who was the only one that 
died amidst the hardships suffered by the colonists. 
How superior was the spirit exhibited twelve years 
after by the Pilgrim emigrants at Plymouth, nearly 
half of whose number perished within four months af- 
ter their landing, yet animated by a settled religious 
purpose, no one of the survivors entertained a thought 
of rehnquishing their design. Had a tithe of their 
energy and resolute spirit animated the Kennebec 
colonists, whose resources were so much superior, a 
more grateful task might have awaited the pen that 
should relate the story of this enterprise.* 

Nor did the colonists suffer to any considerable ex- 
tent from collisions with the natives ; on the other 
hand, they seem to have been treated by them with 
much kindness and hospitality, owing probably to 
favorable representations made by those of their num- 
ber who had resided in the family of Gorges at Ply- 



* The Massachusetts Colony, under the direction of the prudent Winthrop, 
scarcely suffered a less mortality than the Pilgrims, although they arrived early 
in summer. " Many died weekly, yea, almost daily," says one of them ; and 
another writes that " almost in every family lamentation, mourning, and woe were 
heard, and no fresh food to cherish them." This was chiefly during the few 
weeks that the colonists remained at Charlestown, and was occasioned in a con- 
siderable degree by the want of good water. After their removal in the same 
summer (1630) to the peninsula on which the foundations of Boston were laid by 
them, the sickness abated in consequence of a better supply of the pure element 
found there. About two hundred died during the season. In the midst of these 
troubles. Gov. Winthrop wrote to his wife, whom he had left in England for the 
present, in the following words: " I thank God, I like so well to be here that I 
do not repent my coming ; and if I were to come again, I would not have al- 
tered my course, though I had foreseen all these afflictions. * « I praise 
God, we have many occasions of comfort here, and do hope that our days 
of affliction will soon have an end, and that the Lord will do us more good in the 
end than we could have expected, that will abundantly recompense for all the 
trouble we have endured." Winthrop's Journal, Savage's ed. vol. 1. p. 377. 
Hist. Charlestown, by R. Frothingham, Jr. pp. 42, 43. 



32 DISCOURSE. 

mouth, and now acted as guides and interpreters to 
the EngHsh in their intercourse with the red men. 
Purchas, who derived his information from Raleigh 
Gilbert, and others of the Colony, thus speaks of the 
Indians : " The people seemed affected with our men's 
devotions, and would say, ' king James is a good king, 
his God a good God, and Tanto nought ;' so they call 
an evil spirit which haunts them every moon, and 
makes them worship him for fear. He commanded 
them not to dwell near or come among the English, 
threatening to kill some, and inflict sickness on others, 
beginning with two of the sagamore's children ; saying 
he had power and would do the like to the English 
the next moon, to wit, in December." Then follows 
a story calculated to alarm the poor emigrants, and 
which may have had some effect in unsettling their 
resolution : " The people also told our men of can- 
nibals near Sagadehock with teeth three inches long^ 
but they saw them not." One person, styled Master 
Patterson, was killed in an encounter with the Tar- 
rentines, an unfriendly tribe, dwelling beyond the 
Penobscot; with this exception, nothing seems to 
have arisen to disturb the relations of the colonists 
with their uncivilized neighbors. 

The only member of the Plymouth Company who 
seems to have remained undiscouraged and unmoved 
by the breaking up of this colony and the unfavorable 
reports of the country, was Sir Ferdinando Gorges. 
While he regretted, as he says, the loss of so noble 
a friend as the Chief Justice, and his nation so wor- 
thy a subject, he refused to be influenced by the idle 
stories of the cold being so extreme as to render the 
country unsuitable for settlement and cultivation* 



DISCOURSE. 33 

" As for the coldness of the chme," said he, " I had 
had too much experience in the world to be frighted 
with such a blast, as knowing many great kingdoms 
and large territories more northerly seated, and by 
many degrees colder than the clime from whence they 
came, yet plentifully inhabited, and divers of them 
stored with no better commodities from trade and 
commerce than those parts afforded, if like industry, 
art and labor be used." But the good sense of the 
worthy knight was not capable of reanimating the 
drooping energies of the Plymouth Company, 
" There was no more speech of settling any other 
plantation in those parts for a long . time after," say 
the Company in their Relation published at a subse- 
quent period ; " only," they add, " Sir Francis Pop- 
ham having the ships and provision which remained 
of the company, and supplying what was necessary 
for his purpose, sent divers times to the coasts for 
trade and fishing ; of whose loss or gains himself is 
best able to give account." 

Sir Ferdinando pursued a similar course of private 
adventure, at the same time keeping in view his great 
object, the settlement of the country ; " finding," he 
says, " I could no longer be seconded by others, I 
became an owner of a ship myself, fit for that employ- 
ment, and under color of fishing and trade, I got a 
master and company for her, to which I sent Vines 
and others my own servants with their provision for 
trade and discovery. By these and the help of those 
natives formerly sent over, I came to be truly inform- 
ed of so much as gave me assurance that in time I 
should want no undertakers, though as yet I was 
3* 



34 DISCOURSE. 

forced to hire men to stay there the winter quarter 
at extreme rates." 

This state of things continued until the year 1614, 
when Captain John Smith, who had been governor 
of the colony in South Virginia, but had retired in dis- 
gust from its service, turned his attention to the 
north. " I desired to see this country," he said, " and 
spend some time in trying what I could find for all 
those ill rumors and disasters." Having induced 
four London merchants to join him in the enterprise, 
he set sail on the third of March from the Downs, with 
two ships and forty-five men and boys, taking with 
him also an Indian named Tantum, and after a voy- 
age of eight weeks arrived at the island of Monhe- 
gan. Here he built seven boats, in which he sent 
all bui eight of his men on a fishing voyage, while 
with the remainder he embarked in a small boat, and 
with his accustomed energy ranged the coast from 
Penobscot to Cape Cod, exploring all its inlets, riv- 
ers and bays, and trafficking with the Indians. The 
commercial results of this voyage must have fully 
satisfied the most sanguine expectations of his part- 
ners in the enterprise ; for in his small boat, in ex- 
change for trifling articles of little value, he ob- 
tained nearly 11,000 beaver skins, 100 martens, 
and as many otters, and the most of them, he says, 
within the distance of twenty leagues. His fishing 
was not equally successful, as he had lost the best of 
the season in the vain pursuit of whales; but his 
men took and dried about 1,200 quintals of fish, 
which sold in Spain for five dollars per quintal. 

On his return to England, after an absence of 
about six months, Captain Smith made a highly fa- 



DISCOURSE. 35 

vorable report of the country, to which he gave the 
name of NEW ENGLAND. Having prepared a 
written description of his discoveries, together with 
a map of the coast, he presented them to Prince 
Charles, afterwards Charles I., " hmnbly entreating 
his Highness," he says, " to change their barbarous 
names for such English as posterity might say " Prince 
Charles was their godfather." The Prince com- 
plied with this request, confirming the name of New 
England, and substituting English names for those 
which had been derived from the Indians, or that had 
been given by former navigators. This experiment, 
however, proved in the main unsuccessful, as it de- 
served to be ; the names of Plymouth, Charles River, 
and Cape Ann, being the only ones recommended by 
Charles that have been sanctioned by general use ; 
while the names of Massachusetts, Piscataqua, Aga- 
menticus, Saco, Casco, Androscoggin, Kennebeck, 
Pemaquid, Penobscot, Monhegan, Matinicus, and 
others, of Indian origin, are still retained. 

The success of this voyage in regard to its pecu- 
niary returns, and the favorable report of the country, 
infused new life into the spirit of colonial enterprise. 
Gorges took the lead as usual, and in conjunction with 
Dr. Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, and other western gen- 
tlemen, concerted the plan of a colony to be conduct- 
ed by Capt. Smith to New England the following 
year. Smith also endeavored to interest the London 
merchants in this project, because, he remarks, " the 
Londoners have most money ; " but he preferred sail- 
ing from a western port, as he says it is nearly as 
much trouble, but much more danger, to sail from 
London to Plymouth, than from Plymouth to New- 



36 DISCOURSE. 

foundland.* His plan was that the expedition should 
consist of eight ships, four from London and the same 
number from the west of England ; but in this he 
proved unsuccessful, such was the jealousy of interest 
among them. He finally sailed from Plymouth in 
March, 1615, with only two vessels, one of 200 tons, 
the other of 50 ; besides his ships' company, he was 
attended by fifteen men and two boys, who had 
agreed to remain in New England, and begin a plan- 
tation. Smith gives the names of these persons, and 
adds, " I confess I would have wished them as many 
thousands, had all other provisions been in like pro- 
portion, nor would I have had so few, could I have 
had means for more ; yet if God had pleased we had 
safely arrived, I doubted not but to have performed 
more than I promised, and that many thousands had 
been there ere now." 

With the knowledge we possess of the resolute and 
persevering character of this dauntless and excellent 
man, as previously exhibited in the Virginia Colony, 
and on other occasions, we have little doubt as to the 
success of his efforts to colonize New England, had 
he been permitted to reach its shores with his little 
band of emigrants ; but a series of cruel and almost 
unparalled disasters awaited him on the ocean. The 
vessels had proceeded 120 leagues to sea, when they 
were overtaken by a gale that carried away all the 
masts of the larger ship, which was compelled to re- 
turn to Plymouth under jurymasts, the other vessel at 
the same time parting company. Not discouraged 

* To one familiar with the intricate and dangerous navigation of the river 
Thames and the English Channel, this remark would scarcely seem an exaggera- 
tion. 



DISCOURSE. 37 

by this accident, Smith again set sail on the 24th of 
June in another ship of only sixty tons ; but disasters 
still awaited him. Falling in with an English pirati- 
cal craft of vastly superior force, Smith refused to 
yield to the entreaties of his officers who wished him 
to surrender without striking a blow ; but assuming a 
bold attitude he succeeded in making terms with the 
enemy, and w as permitted to continue his voyage. 

Soon after he again fell in with two French pirates, 
also of greatly superior force ; his officers refusing to 
fight. Smith threatened to blow up his ship rather 
than yield. He then opened his four guns upon the 
enemy, and under the fire effected his escape. But 
his next encounter proved fatal to his voyage and all 
his plans. Four French men of war made the odds 
too great for his little bark, and being summoned on 
board the Admiral's ship to show his papers, he obey- 
ed ; but although peace existed between England and 
France at that time, the French commander detain- 
ed him, and took possession of his ship, which was 
then plundered by the French sailors, and his men 
dispersed about their squadron, now increased to 
eight or nine sail. At length these freebooters 
consented to restore his ship and men; but after 
regaining possession, a dispute arose as to continuing 
the voyage, a portion of the officers and men being 
disposed to put back to Plymouth, but Smith and the 
rest were resolved to proceed. In the meantime, he 
was again summoned on board the French admiral's 
ship, and had no sooner reached the quarter deck, 
than a sail hove in sight to which the Frenchman 
gave chase. Thus was he unfortunately separated 
from his command, of which the disaffected part of his 



38 DISCOURSE. 

officers and men took advantage during the night, 
and directed the ship's course to Plymouth, where 
they arrived in safety. 

The French fleet continued to cruise for two 
months, for the purpose of intercepting vessels from 
the West Indies, of which they made several captures. 
When they encountered Spanish vessels. Smith was 
compelled to take part in the actions, and give them 
the benefit of his military skill and experience ; but 
when the prey was English, he was kept carefully out 
of the way, and not allowed to come in contact with 
his countrymen. On their arrival upon the French 
coast near Rochelle, instead of fulfilling their promise 
to make him double amends for his losses, to the 
amount of 10,000 crowns of prize money, they kept 
him a prisoner on board the ship, and threatened him 
with further mischief unless he gave them a full dis- 
charge before the Admiralty. A storm coming on, 
Smith watched his opportunity and escaped in a 
boat during the darkness of the night ; but the cur- 
rent took the boat out to sea instead of enabling him 
to reach the shore. The wind and tide, however, 
changing during the night, the boat at length drifted 
upon a small island, where he was found in the morn- 
ing by some fowlers, nearly drowned, and half dead 
with cold and hunger. 

Pawning his boat for means to reach Rochelle, he 
was informed on his arrival at that place, that on the 
night of his escape the man of war with her richest 
prize had foundered, and the captain and half of the 
ship's company were lost. At Rochelle, Smith sought 
justice in a court of admiralty, libelhng the goods 
saved from the wreck of the man of war ; and having 



DISCOURSE. 39 

collected from the survivors the fullest evidence of the 
losses to which he had been subjected, he left his case 
in charge of Sir Thomas Edmonds, the British min- 
ister at Bordeaux, and returned to England. 

Such was the eventful and disastrous issue of the 
second attempt to colonize New England. Yet it 
was not without its good results. While detained on 
board the French ship. Smith found time to write out 
his previous adventures in New England, with a de- 
scription of the country which was the most com- 
plete and satisfactory that had been yet submitted to 
the public. This work was published in June, 1616, 
and contained his original map of New England, with 
the English names suggested by Prince Charles. He 
printed an edition of two or three thousand, he says, 
and spent the summer of 1616, in visiting all the 
larger towns in the west of England, and distributing 
copies of this book and map. He also caused one 
thousand copies to be bound up with a great variety 
of maps, both of Virginia and New England, which he 
presented to thirty of the principal companies in Lon- 
don, at their Halls. Nearly a year was spent by him 
in this way, with the hope of inducing another effort 
to plant the wilderness of New England ; but all his la- 
bors proved ineffectual, and he was compelled to aban- 
don the project with the loss of the time and money 
he had expended upon it. There is no doubt, how- 
ever, that the knowledge Smith diffused, did in the 
end advance the settlement of the country ; and as 
an acknowledgment of the value of his services, the 
Plymouth Company bestowed on him the title of Ad- 
miral of New England. 

The unremitted exertions of Sir Ferdinando Gor- 



40 DISCOURSE. 

ges were now directed to the formation of a new 
company distinct from that of Virginia, whose atten- 
tion should be exclusively devoted to the colonization 
of New England. A liberal charter was granted to 
this company by the sole authority of the king, con- 
stituting them a corporation with perpetual succes- 
sion, by the name of '' The Council established at 
Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, 
ruling, and governing of New England in America." 
It consisted of forty noblemen, knights, and gentle- 
men, among whom were the Duke of Lenox, the 
Marquis of Buckingham, the Earls of Arundel and 
Warwick, and others scarcely less distinguished in the 
history of that period. The charter bears date No- 
vember 3d, 1620 ; and as it conveyed to the Council 
the territory extending from the fortieth to the forty- 
eighth degree of north latitude, one half of which was 
comprised in the previous patent to the Virginia 
company, objections were made to it at the outset 
from that quarter. Not succeeding with the king 
and the Privy Council, the complainants carried the 
matter before the House of Commons, and Gorges 
appeared three several times at the bar of the house 
to answer objections ; on the last occasion he was at- 
tended by eminent legal counsel. The result was un- 
favorable, and the house in presenting to the king the 
public grievances of the kingdom, included amongst 
them the patent of New England. The effect of this 
movement was at first prejudicial to the company, for 
it was the means of discouraging those who proposed 
to establish plantations in this quarter, as well as 
some of the Council. But James was not inclined to 
liave the propriety of his own acts disputed or deni- 
ed on the floor of Parliament ; so that instead of car- 



DISCOURSE. 41 

rying out the design of destroying the Patent, he dis- 
missed the Parliament, and committed to the Tower 
and other prisons the members who had been most 
forward in condemning the charter, and most free in 
questioning the prerogative of the Crown. 

This charter to the Council of Plymouth was the 
next great step towards the colonization of New 
England, as it was the foundation of all the grants 
that were made of the country upon which titles to 
land now rest. One of the first of these was in favor 
of the Pilgrims then settled at Plymouth. They 
had previously obtained a patent from the old Ply- 
mouth Company, which had been taken to Holland 
for their inspection before their departure ; but this 
not answering their purpose, they appUed to the 
Council of Plymouth for another after their removal 
to New England. Gorges gives the following account 
of the matter : — " After they had well considered the 
state of their affairs, and found that the authority 
they had from the Company of Virginia could not 
warrant their abode in that place, which they found 
so prosperous and pleasing to them, they hastened 
away their ship with order to their solicitor to deal 
with me, to be the means that they might have a 
grant from the Council of New England's Affairs to 
settle in the place ; which was accordingly performed 
to their particular satisfaction and the good content 
of them all ; which place was after called New Ply- 
mouth, where they have continued ever since very 
peaceable, and in all plenty of all necessaries that 
nature needeth, if that could satisfy our vain affec- 
tions." Such was the liberal spirit of this worthy 
man, that although differing in his religious notions 
4 



42 DISCOURSE. 

toto coelo from the pilgrim fathers, he yet looked 
with evident satisfaction upon the comfortable quar- 
ters they had made for themselves within the limits 
of the Council's Patent, although without having se- 
cured a proper title to their lands ; and it seems he 
did not hesitate to aid them in supplying this 
deficiency.* 

* The Pilgrims after their settlement at Plymouth found themselves without 
a legal title to the soil ; hence their application to the Council for a patent, 
which was granted in the name of John Pierce, a London merchant, who held 
it in trust for them. It was dated June 1st, 1621. But not satisfied with this, 
they procured another, in the name of William Bradford, through the influence 
of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and the Earl of Warwick, dated January 13th, 1630, 
on which their title finally rested. The Pierce patent simply granted to him 
and his associates, (without naming them,) one hundred acres of land for each 
person, if they should continue three years in the country ; the land to be taken 
in any place not already inhabited by English people or selected by the Council 
for other purposes. But the Bradford patent contained a general grant of the 
territory of the Colony, with specific boundaries, constituting a separate jurisdic- 
tion, that existed until the union with Massachusetts in 1691. This patent 
likewise conveyed to Bradford and his associates an extensive territory lying on 
both sides of the Kennebec, and an exclusive right to the trade on that river ; a 
very liberal concession. The colony at that time contained, as the patent recites, 
about three hundred people. 

It is a curious fact that the Old Colony of Plymouth came near being annex- 
ed to New York, instead of Massachusetts, in 1691. A strenuous opposition 
was made by the agent of Plymouth, in London, to the connexion with Massa- 
chusetts, which seems to have arisen from a feeling of jealousy towards the sister 
colony. " All the frame of heaven," he says, " moves upon one axis, and the 
whole of New England's interest seems designed to be loaden on one bottom, and 
her particular motions to be concentric to the Massachusetts tropic ; you know who 
are wont to trot after the bay horse," &c. To such length was this opposition 
carried, that when the commission of Governor Sloughter was made out for the 
government of New York, Plymouth was actually included in it ; but it was 
afterwards changed to meet the views of the Massachusetts agent. Some dis- 
turbances that arose in two or three towns of the Old Colony about the same 
time, were attributed by the authorities at Plymouth to the influence of Sloughter, 
who, however, had enough on his hands, during the three or four months that 
intervened between his arrival at New York, and his death, without intermed- 
dling with the affairs of a distant Colony. See Davis, in Appendix to Morton's 
Memorial, pp. 361-3. Ibid. 473-5. 1 Hazard, State Papers, 298. Prince. 
198. note. 



DISCOURSE 43 

The attention of the Council was soon directed to 
the importance of estabhshing a general government 
over their extensive territory, as complaints were made 
by those who visited the country of disorders com- 
mitted on the coast, which there was no power com- 
petent to restrain or punish. Having determined on 
the appointment of a Governor to superintend their 
affairs in the country, Robert Gorges, Esq., a son of 
Sir Ferdinando, was selected for this office, with 
whom was joined a board of counsellors, one of whom 
was to be the Governor for the time being of the Ply- 
mouth colony. An extensive grant of territory was 
made at the same time to Robert Gorges, containing 
three hundred square miles, on Massachusetts Bay, 
which he proceeded at once to occupy. He arrived 
in the Bay about the beginning of the autumn of 
1623, " with sundry passengers and families," and 
gave immediate notice of his arrival to the govern- 
ment of Plymouth. " He had a commission from 
the Council of New England," says Bradford, who 
was then Governor of Plymouth, and entitled by vir- 
tue of that office to be one of his Councd, " to be 
general Governor of the country ; and they appoint 
for his council and assistants, Capt. West, [who had 
been previously commissioned as Admiral of New 
England,] Christopher Levett, Esq., and the Governor 
of Plymouth for the time being ; giving him author- 
ity to choose others as he should find fit ; with full 
power to him and his assistants, or any three of them, 
(whereof himself was always to be one,) to do and 
execute what to them should seem good in all cases, 
capital, criminal, and civil, with divers other instruc- 
tions, of which and his commission it pleased him to 



44 DISCOURSE. 

offer the Governor of Plymouth to take a copy. He 
gave us notice of his arrival by letter, and before we 
could visit him sails for the eastward with the ship he 
came in ; but a storm rising, they bore into our har- 
bor, are kindly entertained, and stay fourteen days." 
He adds, " Shortly after. Governor Gorges goes to 
the Massachusetts by land, being thankful for his kind 
entertainment. His ship staying here, fits for Vir- 
ginia, having some passengers to deliver there." 

The place selected by the Governor General for 
the residence of the families that had accompanied 
him, is situated on a branch of what is now called 
Boston Bay, then known as Massachusetts Bay, in 
the present town of Weymouth, about twelve miles 
south of the city of Boston. The same place had 
been settled the year previous by a band of English 
emigrants under the auspices of a London merchant, 
named Weston, who had provided them with all the 
necessary supplies for establishing a plantation. The 
same gentleman had been chiefly instrumental in sup- 
plying the P.ymouth colonists with the means of 
transportation to New England, but had undertaken 
this neighboring settlement with a view to his private 
advantage. He employed several vessels in trade and 
fishing on the coast, and the men who formed the 
settlement, had been chosen as suitable for the fur- 
therance of his designs, which were purely of a 
mercantile character. * But owing to various causes, 
this settlement was broken up in less than a year 
from the time it had been commenced, and when 
Gorges arrived at the same place, with a considera- 

• Morton, New English Canaan, p. 106. 



DISCOURSE. 45 

ble reinforcement of men and supplies, Weston's peo- 
ple seem to have wholly disappeared. 

While Gorges was enjoying the hospitality of the 
Pilgrims, Mr. Weston arrived there to look after his 
affairs, when the Governor General called him to ac- 
count for the disorderly conduct of his men, who had 
scandalized the country by their riotous behavior ; 
but as that gentleman had been a great sufferer from 
the abuses that had been committed in his absence, 
by the waste of his property and the frustration of 
his plans, the matter was soon compromised, and 
Gorges embarked in one of his ships for the east- 
ward. He entered the mouth of the Piscataqua, and 
visited the plantation of Mr. David Thompson, where 
he met Christopher Levett, Esq., one of his Counsel- 
lors, who had just arrived from England. The Gov- 
erner there administered to Levett the oath of office, 
in the presence of three more of the Council, and 
thus duly organized his government. 

The Council of Plymouth, in providing for the pro- 
per administration of affairs in New England, did not 
forget the religious interests of the country. They 
sent over with the governor a clergyman of the church 
of England, the Rev. William Morell, for the purpose 
of superintending the establishment of churches, and 
probably to counteract the efforts of the Puritans for 
the spread of their peculiar views. He remained 
about two years, chiefly at Plymouth, where his dis- 
creet deportment seems to have conciliated the good 
will of the colonists ; indeed, such was the condition 
of the country, that he did not undertake to execute 
his ministerial functions, nor was it known in the 
colony that he had an ecclesiastical commission to 
4* 



46 DISCOURSE. 

oversee their religious concerns, until he was about 
going away, when he spoke of it to some of the peo- 
ple. During his abode in the country, Mr. Morrell 
composed a Latin poem, descriptive of the natural 
features of New England, which he dedicated to 
Charles I. and published, together with an English 
translation, after his return.* The following are the 
introductory lines ; 

NOVA ANGLIA. 

Hactenus ignotam populis ego carmine primus, 
Te nova de veteri cui contigit Anglia nomen, 
Aggredior trepidus pingui celebrare Minerva. 
Fer mihi numen opem, cupienti singula plectro 
Panders veridico, quvs nuper vidimus ipsi ; 
Ut breviter vereque sonant modulamina nostra, 
Temperiem coeli, vim terrsB, munera ponti, 
Et varios gentis mores, velamina, cultus. 

The author's translation : 

NEW ENGLAND. 

" Fear not, poor Muse, cause first to sing her fame 

That's yet scarce known unless by map or name ; 

A grandchild to earth's paradise is born. 

Well limbed, well nerv'd, fair, rich, sweet, yet forlorn. 

Thou blest director ! so direct my verse, 

That it may win her people, friends, commerce ; 



* " Morrell, the clergyman who accompanied Gorges, notwithstanding his dis- 
appointment, conceived a very favorable opinion of New England, which he 
expressed in an elegant Latin poem, descriptive of the country." Grahame, Hist. 
U. S. I. 202. It may be found reprinted in vol. I. Mass. Hist. Coll. Gra- 
hame alludes to the well known lines in Hudibras, founded on an occurrence in 
Weston's colony, where an innocent but bed-rid weaver was said to have been 
hung instead of a guilty but useful cobbler, whom they could not so well spare. 
In clearing the pilgrims of this charge, Grahame, with equal disregard of truth, 
endeavors to fasten it upon the administration of Gorges. Ibid. 



DISCOURSE. 47 

Whilst her sweet air, rich soil, blest seas, my pen 
Shall blaze, and tell the natures of her men." 

The poem concludes with an appeal to the English 
people in behalf of the country : 

" If these poor lines may win this country love. 
Or kind compassion in the English move — 
Persuade our mighty and renowned state 
This pur-blind people to commiserate ; 
Or painful men to this good land invite, 
Whose holy works these natives may inlight : 
If Heaven grant these, to see here built I trust, 
An English kingdobi from this Indian dust !" 

Gorges remained in the country until the spring of 
1624, when he returned to England, discouraged by 
not receiving promised succor from home for his colo- 
ny, and perhaps, as Bradford says, "not finding the 
state of things to answer his quality." A portion of 
his people remained, and were kindly assisted with 
supplies from Plymouth ; but most of them went either 
to Virginia or England. He was the oldest son of Sir 
Ferdinando, and had married a daughter of the Earl 
of Lincoln. He died not long after his return, and 
was succeeded in his patent of lands on Massachu- 
setts Bay by his brother John, who conveyed the 
same to General Sir William Brereton, Bart, in 1629; 
the latter is said to have sent over a number of fam- 
ilies and servants, who possessed and improved sev- 
eral large tracts of land comprised in this patent.* 

* This fact is derived from a MS. document recently discovered by Rev. Mr. 
Felt, of Boston, in his indefatigable researches and labors to arrange the ancient 
archives of Massachusetts. 



48 DISCOURSE. 

One of the counsellors of Governor Gorges, Chris- 
topher Levett, Esq., soon after his return to England, 
published an account of his voyage, from which it 
appears that he first arrived at the Isles of Shoals, 
and passed a month at the plantation of Mr. Thom- 
son, at Piscataqua.* Being there joined by his men, 
who had come over in several ships, he left that 
•place in the autumn of 1623, with two boats, to ex- 
plore the eastern coast for the purpose of selecting a 
suitable place to form a settlement. He landed in 
the course of his expedition at various points along 
the coast until he reached what he calls Capeman- 
wagen, now probably Cape Newagen, a few miles 
east of the mouth of the Kennebec, where he says 
nine ships were engaged in fishing during that year. 
Here he remained four nights, " in which time," he 
says, " there came many savages with their wives 
and children, and some of good account among 
them ;" of the latter description he mentions a sag- 
amore named Somerset, " one that hath been found 
very faithful to the English, and hath saved the lives 
of many of our nation, some from starving, others 
from killing [being killed.]" 

Levett states, that when he was about to depart 
from this place, the Indians enquired where he inten- 
ded to establish his plantation ; he answered, that he 
intended to examine the coast farther to the east be- 
fore making a decision. Thereupon they assured him 

• Thomson afterwards (about 1626) removed to an island in Boston harbor, 
still known by his name. See Christian Examiner, Sept. 1846. p. 282. Art. 
Young's Mass. Chronicles. The settlement at Piscataqua, one of the first in 
New Hampshire, was not, however, abandoned, as stated by Young, (Chron. 
Mass. 21.) for it was assessed for certain expenses equally with Plymouth in 
1628. 3 Maes. Hist. Coll. 63. 



DISCOURSE. 49 

there was no suitable place left for him in that quar- 
ter, as Pemaquid and Monhegan, as well as Cape- 
man wagen, had been already granted to others. 
Thus discouraged from pursuing his voyage, Levett 
accepted an invitation from the sagamore of Casco 
to accompany him and his wife on their return to 
Casco Bay ; where they assured him he should be 
made welcome to as much land as he desired. Ac- 
cordingly the next day he sailed, he says, " with the 
king, queen, and prince, bow and arrows, dog and 
kettle in my boat, his noble attendants rowing by us 
in their canoes." Selecting a place for his planta- 
tion, he gave it the name of York ; it had been the 
property of " the queen's father, who left it to her at 
his death, having no more children." " And thus," 
he adds, " after many dangers, much labor, and great 
charge, I have obtained a place of habitation in New 
England, where I have built a house, and fortified it 
in a reasonable good fashion, strong enough against 
such enemies as are these savage people." 

The rarity of Levett's book is probably the rea- 
son that this voyage has not been heretofore noticed 
by any of our writers.* What afterwards became of 
him, or his settlement, may be an interesting subject 
of enquiry. His narrative is valuable as showing the 
condition of the coast of Maine at the date of his 
voyage ; he mentions no EngUsh settlement after 

* It is entitled, " A Voyage into New England, begun in 1623, and ended in 
1624. Performed by Christopher Levett, His Majesty's Woodward of Somer- 
setshire, and one of the Council of New England. Printed at London, &c. 
1628." A transcript was procured by Mr. Sparks from a copy in England, and 
recently printed in Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. 28. A copy of the original edition 
belongs to the New York Hist. Society, from which it is proposed to be reprinted 
in the new volume of the Maine Historical Collections. 



60 DISCOURSE. 

leaving Piscatqua, although the Indians informed him 
that Pemaquid, Cape Newagen, and Monhegan, had 
been granted to others. Sir Ferdinando Gorges had 
a plantation at that period on the island of Monhe- 
gan,* which had long been a place of resort for ves- 
sels engaged in fishing on the coast. The other 
places named were also used by fishermen for curing 
their fish on ' stages ' erected by them, and gradually 
increased into considerable settlements. There is 
extant a deed from Somerset, the sagamore mention- 
ed by Levett as particularly friendly to the English, 
and another, to one John Brown of New Harbor, on 
Pemaquid Point, covering a large tract of land in that 
quarter, dated July 15th, 162.5. The next year, 1626, 
two eminent merchants of the city of Bristol, who 
had been long concerned in voyages to this coast, 
Robert Aldworth and Giles Elbridge, sent over Mr. 
Abraham Short to take possession of the island of 
Monhegan, which they purchased at this time ; Short 
remained in the country, as the agent of those gentle- 
men, who soon after obtained a patent of lands at 
Pemaquid from the Council of Plymouth, and estab- 
lished a flourishing colony at that place, where may 
still be found descendants of these early colonists, in 
possession of the allotments of lands made to their 
ancestors under this patent. 

Robert Aldworth, one of these patentees, is still 
remembered at Bristol, for his public spirit and mu- 
nificent charities ; for many years he was one of the 
aldermen of the city, and took a prominent part in 
its aflfairs. A splendid monument in St. Peter's 

* Prince. 127. 



DISCOURSE. 51 

Church, near the altar, perpetuates his memory. 
" He is entitled," says a writer of that city, " to dis- 
tinguished notice as a merchant of the first rank of 
the age in which he lived."* He was born in 1561, 
and died in 1634. Having no issue, he bequeathed 
all his estate to Giles Elbridge, Esq., his co-patentee 
at Pemaquid, and also a merchant of Bristol, who had 
married his niece. The town of Bristol, comprising 
a portion of old Pemaquid, commemorates by its name 
the origin of its early settlement and of many of its 
inhabitants. 

The charter of the Council of Plymouth, as has 
been already remarked, laid the foundation of all 
grants of land in New England ; but the geographical 
features of the country were but little understood by 
the members of the Council, and great confusion con- 
sequently ensued in their conveyances. Of all the 
forty noblemen, knights and esquires named in that 
instrument, only one, Raleigh Gilbert, had been on 
this side of the water. The rivers had not been ex- 
plored far beyond their mouths, and nothing was 
known of the interior of the country except from the 
uncertain and indistinct accounts of the Indians. It 
is not strange, therefore, that much perplexity and 
embarrassment arose upon the actual settlement of 
so large a territory, under grants made in England by 
those who had never seen any portion of it. Dr. Bel- 
knap well remarks, that " either from the jarring in- 
terests of the members, or their indistinct knowledge 
of the country, or their inattention to business, or 
some other cause which does not fully appear, their 

* This monument was repaired and embellished as recently as 1807, at the 
expense of a lady. Carry. Hist. Bristol, vol. 2. p. 258. 



62 DISCOURSE. 

affairs were transacted in a confused manner from the 
beginning ; and the grants which they made were so 
inaccurately described, and interfered so much with 
each other, as to occasion difficulties and controver- 
sies, some of which are not yet ended." 

No part of New England has suffered more from 
this cause than Maine, even at last to a complete de- 
nial of the title of its proprietary by a neighboring 
colony. The first grant by the Council that included 
any portion of this State, seems to have been the pa- 
tent of Laconia, to Sir Ferdin^ndo Gorges and John 
Mason, in 1622. This comprised "all the lands 
situated between the rivers Merrimack and Sagade- 
hock, extending back to the great lakes and the river 
of Canada ;" and was intended to embrace a region 
in the vicinity of the lakes, of which highly colored 
and romantic descriptions had been given. Both of 
the patentees acted under this patent, although many 
subsequent grants of the Council were made within the 
same hmits. The first settlements in New Hamp- 
shire, and perhaps in this State, on the banks of the 
Piscataqua, were made under it. After seven years 
joint title, Mason, November 7th, 1629, took out a 
separate patent of that portion lying south and west 
of the Piscataqua, to which he gave the name of New 
Hampshire, being at that time Governor of Ports- 
mouth in Hampshire, England. * The remaining por- 
tion became the exclusive property of Gorges, %ho, 
however, had no separate title until 1635, when he 
gave the territory between the Piscataqua and Ken- 
nebec the name of New Somersetshire, in compli- 

» 2 CoU. N. H. Hist. Soc, 273. 



DISCOURSE. 53 

ment to his native county ; and soon after sent over 
his kinsman, Capt. William Gorges as Governor, with 
commissions to several gentlemen residing there, as 
Counsellors of the new Province. This was the first 
general jurisdiction (1636) established in this State. 
A portion of the records of New Somersetshire have 
been preserved, from which it appears that a court 
was held by the Governor and Commissioners at 
Saco, in jMarch, 1636, and at subsequent dates. 

Gorges now flattered himself that his long cherish- 
ed hopes were about to be realized by the speedy 
settlement of the country, in which he had taken so 
deep an interest. He had as yet experienced little 
else than trouble and disappointment, the only return 
for years of labor and many thousand pounds of ex- 
pense. Before the date of his separate grant from 
the Council, settlements had been made at many dif- 
ferent points within his limits, and there was an en- 
couraging prospect for the future. The flourishing 
condition of the colonies of New Plymouth and Mas- 
sachusetts Bay, had the effect of directing a greater 
share of public attention towards New England, and 
those who did not harmonize with the religious views 
of the Puritans, sought new abodes under the more 
tolerant sway of the lord proprietor. 

When the Council of Plymouth resigned their 
charter, in 1635, the resignation was accompanied by 
a petition to the king for the establishment of a gen- 
eral government in New England, and Sir Ferdinando, 
then about three score years of age, was nominated 
to be the General Governor. The design received 
the approbation of Charles and his privy council, by 
whom an order was issued, establishing the new 
5 



54 DISCOURSE. 

government, and appointing Gorges to the office of 
Governor over New England ; but the troubles at 
home, both in England and Scotland, prevented the 
completion of the scheme, which had excited the fears 
of the Puritan colonists to a most intense degree. 
The death of Mason, who had been a most active 
promoter of this plan of a general government, 
occurred at this period, and was another cause 
of its abandonment. Governor Winthrop has the 
following notice of this event in his journal : — " 1636. 
The last winter Captain Mason died. He was the 
chief mover in all attempts against us ; and was to 
have sent the General Governor ; and for this end 
was providing ships. But the Lord, in mercy, taking 
him away, all the business fell asleep." 

In the Journal of Richard Mather, grand-father of 
Cotton Mather, under the date of May 27th, 1635, 
there is an interesting notice of a visit paid by Sir 
■ Ferdinando Gorges to a ship then lying at Bristol, in 
which a number of Puritans were about embarking 
for New England.* At that time there was a great 
probability of Sir Ferdinando's going over as Gen- 
eral Governor of the New England Colonies, to which 
he evidently alludes in his conversation with one of 
the passengers. The passage is as follows : — " When 
we came there, we found divers passengers, and 
among them some lovely and godly Christians, that 
were glad to see us there. And soon after we came 
on board, there came three or four boats with more 
passengers, and one wherein came Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, who came to see the ship and the people, 

* This journal has been recently published for the first time, by Dr. Young, ia 
his valuable collection of documents relating to Massachusetts. 



DISCOURSE. 55 

When he was come, he inquired whether there were 
any people there that went to Massachusetts Bay- 
Whereupon Mr. Maud and Barnabas Power were 
sent for to come before him. Who being come, he 
asked Mr. Maud of his country, occupation, or cal- 
hng of life, &c., and professed his good will to the 
people there in the Bay, and promised that if ever he 
came there, he would be a true friend unto them." 

The truth is, an unreasonable jealousy existed to- 
wards Sir Ferdinand o, on the part of the leading col- 
onists in Massachusetts, that was not justified by the 
character of that distinguished patron of New Eng- 
land, or by his conduct in reference to the Puritan em- 
igrants. The active part he had taken from the 
beginning, when the country first came into notice, 
through a period of more than thirty years, in all 
measures for encouraging its settlement, and promot- 
ing its prosperity, is sufficient evidence of the sincere 
interest he took in the welfare of New England. To 
him the Puritans, both of Plymouth and Massachu- 
setts, were in the main indebted for their charters, 
and the former deserve the credit of having made a 
grateful acknowledgment of his kindness, and of the 
services he had rendered the country.* But in the 
sister colony it was otherwise ; his name was seldom 
mentioned there without symptoms of fear or distrust. 
The real cause of this unfriendly feeling towards 
Sir Ferdinando Gorges may, perhaps, be traced to his 

*Thus in a letter to him from Governor Bradford and others, in 1628, they 
say, — "Honorable Sir: As you have ever been, not only a favorer, but also a 
most special beginner and furtherer of the good of this country, to your great 
cost and no less honor, we whose names are underwritten, being some of every 
plantation in the land, deputed for the rest, do hHmbly crave your Worship's help ' 
and best assistance," &c. 3 Mass. Hist. Coll. 63. 



'56 DISCOURSE. 

prominent position as a member of the Council of 
Plymouth; the just claims of his family to lands on 
Massachusetts Bay, by a grant prior to that of the 
colony ; and the disgust excited in England among 
the friends of the established Church, as well as per- 
sons of moderation generally, by the intolerance and 
fanaticism displayed in some of the first pohtical acts 
of the Massachusetts Company after their removal 
to New England.* Sharing the common feeling 
in England, Gorges was in a situation to exert a 
powerful influence, if he chose, in opposition to the 
interests of the colony ; but he uniformly befriended 
them, until persons suspected of being in his interest 
were imprisoned, or ignominiously thrust out of the 
country, as in the case of Sir Christopher Gardiner, 
who under the pretence of his " having two wives in 



* Gorges, in his description of New England, after stating that there were 
several sorts of persons who did not altogether agree among themselves, yet al! 
were disaffected towards Episcopal jurisdiction, adds — " Some of the discreeter 
sort, to avoid what they found themselves subject unto, made use of their friends 
to procure from the Council for the Affairs of New England to settle a colony 
within their limits ; to which it pleased the thrice honored Earl of Warwick to 
write to me, then at Plymouth, to condescend that a Patent might be granted 
to such as then sued for it. Whereupon I gave my approbation so far forth as it 
might not be prejudicial to my son Robert Gorges' interest, whereof he had a 
Patent under the seal of the Council. Hereupon there was a grant passed, as 
was thought reasonable [the Mass. Patent] ; but the same was after enlarged by 
his Majesty, and confirmed under the great seal of England ; by the authority 
whereof the undertakers proceeded so effectually, that in a very short time num- 
bers of people of all sorts flocked thither in heaps, that at last it was specially or- 
dered by the king's command, that none should be suffered to go without license 
first had and obtained, and they to take the oath of supremacy and allegiance. 
So that what I had long before prophesied, when I could hardly get any for 
money to reside there, was now brought to pass. The reason of that restraint 
was grounded upon the several complaints that came out of those parts of the 
divers sects and schisms that were amongst them, all contemning the public gov- 
ernment of the ecclesiastical state. And it was doubted that they would, in short 
time, wholly shake off the royal jurisdiction of the sovereign state." 



DISCOURSE. " 57 

England," was arrested while travelling among the 
Indians, and finally brought back to Boston, where 
he was thrown into prison. It is now admitted that 
nothing criminal was proved against him ;* but when 
the authorities of Massachusetts opened his letters, 
which had been sent to Boston, one was found to be 
from Sir Ferdinando Gorges, " who," says the gov- 
ernor, " claims a great part of the bay of Massachu- 
setts ;" and " it appeared," he adds, " from his letters 
that he had some secret design to recover his pre- 
tended right, and that he reposed much trust in Sir 
Christopher Gardiner." 

The case of Thomas Morton was one of, perhaps, 
less undeserved rigor, though cruel and oppressive ; 
and it is not strange that both he and Gardiner, on 
their return to England, should have blazoned the 
outrages that had been heaped upon them, and turned 
the benevolent mind of even Gorges himself against 
his favorite New England. Yet writing at a later 
period, the worthy knight exonerates many of the 
colonists from the charge of fanaticism, as well as 
from the guilt of a treasonable disposition towards the 
king's government ; " doubtless," he says, " had not 
the patience and wisdom of Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Hum- 
phreys, Mr. Dudley, and others their assistants, been 
the greater, much mischief would suddenly have over- 
whelmed them, more than did befall them. Notwith- 
standing, amongst those great swarms there went 
many that wanted not love and affection to the 
honor of the king, and happiness of their native coun- 

* Davis in Morton's Mem. 165. See also the sensible remarks of Savage, ed. 
Winthrop's Journal. I. 54. 57. Young is less judicious. Chron. Mass. 334. 

5* 



58 DISCOURSE. 

try." Being at length called upon personally by the 
government, as the author and supporter of the obnox- 
ious proceedings in New England, he found it difficult 
to avoid the imputations that were raised against him 
on account of his agency in these matters ; and that 
he might no longer suffer this reproach, he counselled 
and urged upon the Council the expediency of sur- 
rendering tlieir charter to the crown; Avhich was 
accordingly done, on the 25th April, 1635. It thus 
appears that while Sir Ferdinando was an object of 
suspicion and distrust in Massachusetts, he was com- 
pelled to suffer imputations of an offensive character 
at home, on account of the support he gave to the 
fanatics and traitors of which that colony was believed 
to consist. 

The next event of general interest in the history of 
the State, is the confirmation of the patent from the 
Council of Plymouth to Gorges by a new charter 
from the Crown, in which the territory is first styled 
the Province of Maine, * of which he was made 
Lord Palatine, with the same powers and privileges 
as the Bishop of Durham, in the County Palatine of 
Durham. This charter conferred upon the venerable 
knight a high degree of feudal authority, and he im- 
mediately proceeded to reorganize his jurisdiction in 
the province by the appointment of a new board of 

* Sullivan, Hist. Maine, p. 307, says that " the territory was called the Pro- 
vince by way of a compliment to the queen of Charles I, who was a daughter of 
France, and owned as her private estate a province there, called the Province of 
Meyne," &c. Such is the prevailing impression as to the origin of the name 
finally given by Gorges to his province, but unfortunately for its accuracy, the pro- 
vince of Maine in France did not appertain to Queen Henrietta Maria, but to 
the crown ; nor is it discoverable that she possessed any interest in that province. 
The biography of this queen recently published by Miss Strickland, is a work of 
inteDse interest, and apparently drawn from original and authentic sources. 



DISCOURSE. 59 

Commissioners, at the head of whom he first placed 
Sir Thomas Josselyn, but that gentleman not coming 
over, he substituted in his place his truly and well be- 
loved cousin, Thomas Gorges, Esq., who arrived at 
Boston in the summer of 1640. Governor Winthrop 
speaks of him as " a young gentleman of the Inns of 
Court ; * * * sober and well disposed ; he staid 
a few days at Boston, and was very careful to take 
advice of our magistrates how to manage his aflairs." 
He took up his residence at Agamenticus, which was 
now incorporated into a city, by the name of Gorge- 
ana, with a mayor and recorder, and seven aldermen.* 
At this place also it was ordained by the charter that 
Wednesday in every w^eek should be market day, and 
that there should be two fairs held every year, viz., 
upon the feast days of St. James and St. Paul. 

The plan of government for the Province was 
based upon the Saxon forms existing in England, and 
as old as the days of king Alfred. The province was 
to be divided into eight counties, and these into six- 
teen hundreds ; the hundreds to be subdivided into 
parishes and tythings, as the people should increase. 
In the absence of the Lord Proprietor, a Lieuten- 
ant was to preside. A chancellor for the hearing of 
civil causes ; a treasurer to receive the revenue ; a 
marshal for the command of the militia ; a marshal's 
court for criminal matters ; an admiral and court of 
admiralty for maritime cases ; a master of ordnance, 
and a secretary ; were severally constituted. These 
officers were to be a standing council, together with 
eight deputies to be elected by the people, one for 

* On Smith's map this place is named Boston, at the instance of Prince Charles. 



60 DISCOURSE. 

each county. One lieutenant and eight justices were 
allowed to each county ; two head-constables to every 
hundred ; one constable and four tythingmen to every 
parish ; each tythingman to give an account of the 
demeanor of the families within his tything to the 
constable of the parish, who was to render the same 
to the head constables of the hundred, and they to 
the lieutenant and justices of the county, who were to 
take cognizance of all misdemeanors ; and from them 
an appeal lay to the governor and council. 

Such was the system of government Gorges de- 
signed to introduce into his province of Maine ; but 
it is hardly necessary to say that it was not fully car- 
ried into effect. The civil war in England withdrew 
the attention of the Lord Proprietor from his own 
private affairs ; the governor was called home, and 
in the distractions of the times, the colony of Mas- 
sachusetts Bay undertook to set up a title to the 
greater part of the Province, under color of which 
they took possession of it, and excluded the heirs of 
Gorges from the exercise of their rights. Maine was 
thus summarily annexed to Massachusetts Bay, but 
not without a spirited resistance on the part of the au- 
thorities of the province, and most of the inhabitants. 

The pretext for this usurpation was found m the 
terms of the Massachusetts patent, which established 
the northern boundary on a line three miles north of 
the river Merrimac, and the southern three miles 
south of Charles river, the intermediate space being 
taken for the breadth of the grant. But when it sub- 
sequently appeared that the course of the Merrimac 
changed at a certain distance from the sea, and that 
its head- waters were situated far to the north, the old 



DISCOURSE. 61 

limits were abandoned, and a new line drawn for the 
northern boundary of the patent, beginning at a point 
three miles north of the head waters of the river, and 
so running easterly to the sea. Both New Hampshire 
and the greater part of Maine were found by this con- 
struction to be within the bounds of the Massachu- 
setts patent. 

The New Hampshire towns, having been settled 
chiefly from Massachusetts Bay, were not reluctant 
to be brought within her jurisdiction ; * but it was 
otherwise with the inhabitants of Maine. Commis- 
sioners were sent " to treat with the gentlemen of the 
eastward," in the language of the Massachusetts Re- 
cords, in the summer of 1652. Edward Godfrey, of 
York, was at that time Governor of Maine, and rep- 
resented the interests of the heirs of Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, who was then dead. Called upon by the 
commissioners of Massachusetts to submit to the 
authority of that colony, Godfrey resolutely refused, 
declaring that the bounds of Massachusetts had been 
determined twenty years ago, since which time many 
grants had been made in Maine, a sum of £35,000 
expended in promoting the settlement of the coun- 
try, and a lawful jurisdiction exercised, which had 
been acknowledged by Massachusetts and approved 
by the Enghsh government. " We are resolved," 

* The original settlers of New Hampshire, who planted themselves at the 
mouth of the Piscataqua as early as 1623, under the auspices of Mason and Gor- 
ges, were of the Church of England ; but after the death of Mason, (1635.) the 
new settlers were almost entirely non-conformists. Miss Aikin, in her Me- 
moirs of Charles I., recounting what had been done for the colonization of the 
new world prior to the accession of that monarch, states that " a small band of 
emigrant Puritans had established themselves in New Hampshire." Vol. 1. p. 29. 
This statement is without doubt founded on a misapprehension of the character 
of the settlements in that quarter at the period in question. 



G2 DISCOURSE. 

said the Governor, " to exercise our just jurisdiction 
till it shall please the Parliament, the Common Weale 
of England, otherwise to order, under whose power 
and protection we are." 

Gorges had taken care to encourage the settlement 
of members of the church of England in his province, 
and a considerable proportion of the inhabitants 
v*^ere of that faith ; hence there was a strong aversion 
among them to coming under the rule of the Puritans, 
by this new process of annexation. But this was not 
all ; a deep sense of the flagrant injustice of the claim 
of Massachusetts to the soil of Maine, after the royal 
confirmation of the grant to Gorges and his heirs, 
produced an exasperated state of feeling throughout 
the Province, and led in many instances to scenes of 
open violence. As a matter of prudence, however, 
the towns gradually decided to acquiesce in the 
change until intelligence could be obtained from the 
heir of Gorges, and there should be a prospect of 
offering a successful resistance to such a palpable 
usurpation. It must be admitted, likewise, that the 
people were somewhat divided in their feelings, a por- 
tion who sympathised with the religious views of the 
claimants forming a party in their favor. The puri- 
tan divines were of course on the side of Massachu- 
setts, and when one of them upon the Lord's day had 
exhorted the people to be earnest in prayer to the 
Lord to direct them in respect they were under two 
forms of government, one of the congregation started 
up and angrily rebuked him, saying, that he " need 
not make such a preamble, for they were under the 
government of Gorges." An Episcopal clergyman, 
whom the Massachusetts authorities had forbidden 



DISCOURSE. 63 

to baptize children, and perform other duties of his 
sacred office, was presented by a grand jury for 
expressing his opinion of those in power with too 
great freedom ; in saying " that the Governor of 
Boston was a rogue, and all the rest thereof traitors 
and rebels against the king." Such was the excited 
state of feeling produced by the unjustifiable course 
of Massachusetts at that period. 

On the restoration of Charles IT., Ferdinando 
Gorges, Esq., a grandson of the old Lord Proprietor, 
sent over his agent with letters from the king to the 
Governor of Massachusetts Bay, requiring either a 
restitution of his lawful inheritance, or that they 
should show reason for the occupation of the Province 
of Maine. The next step was the appointment of 
Commissioners by the crown to visit New England, 
and enquire into all existing grievances. They came 
into Maine in the summer of 1665, and issued their 
proclamation, in which they charge the Massachusetts 
colony with having " refused by the sound of the trum- 
pet to submit to his majesty's authority, looking upon 
themselves as the supreme power in those parts, 
contrary to their allegiance and derogatory to his 
Majesty's sovereignty." They then proceed to ap- 
point a number of gentlemen in the Province, known 
to be friendly to the claims of Gorges, as magistrates 
to exercise authority there until his Majesty's 
pleasure be further known. These were Messrs. 
Champernon* and Cutts, of Kittery ; Rishworth and 
Johnson, of York ; Wheelwright, of Wells ; Hook 
and Phillips, of Saco ; Josselyn, of Black Point, now 

* Francis Champernon was a relative of Sir W. Raleigh, whose mother was 
a daughter of Sir Philip Champernon of Devonshire. 



64 DISCOURSE. 

Scarborough ; Jordan, of Richmond's Island ; Moun- 
py, of Casco, now Portland ; and Wincoll, of New- 
ichawanock, afterwards Berwick. 

Massachusetts did not long acquiesce in this ar- 
rangement; for in July, 1668, four commissioners 
escorted by a mihtary force entered the Province and 
proceeded to hold a court at York. The king's 
magistrates were present and remonstrated, but to no 
purpose. The account of the matter given by John 
Josselyn, who was then residing with his brother at 
Black Point, is, that " as soon as the commissioners 
were returned from England, the Massachusetts men 
entered the Province in a hostile manner with a 
troop of horse and foot, and turned the judge and his 
assistants off the bench, imprisoned the major or 
commander of the mihtia, and threatened the judge 
and some others that were faithful to Mr. Gorges' 
interest." * 

At length both parties lo this exciting controversy 
appeared by their agents before the king at the palace 
of Whitehall, and his Majesty, upon a fair hearing of 
their respective claims, " decided that the Province of 
Maine was the riglitful property of the heirs of Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, both as to soil and the govern- 
ment." As soon as this decision was known, an 
agent of Massachusetts made overtures to Mr. Gor- 
ges for the purchase of his title, which he finally sold 
to that colony, in March, 1677, for the sum of £1250 
sterling, or about six thousand dollars. This trans- 
action gave great offence to his friends in the 
Province, who sent a remonstrance to England, but 

* Josselyn's Two Voyages to New England, p. 198. London, 1675. 



DISCOURSE. 65 

it was too late. Such, however, was the continued 
opposition to the authority of Massachusetts on the 
part of the inhabitants, that it became necessary 
to send an armed force into the Province to awe the 
people into submission and prevent disturbances. 

Maine was now fairly annexed to Massachusetts, 
not in accordance with the wishes of the people, but 
by a legal transfer of the soil and government for a 
valuable consideration ; and in the act of taking 
possession by that colony, the title of Gorges was 
duly recited ; nothing further was heard of its being 
embraced in their own patent. A separate govern- 
ment was now organized for the Province, at the 
head of which Thomas Danforth, Esq., of Cambridge, 
was placed with the title of President of the Province 
of Maine. This state of things continued without 
interruption, except during the violent administration 
of Sir Edmund Andros, until the revolution in Eng- 
land, resulting in the deposition of James II. and the 
elevation of William and Mary to the throne. A 
new charter was then received, which united in one 
province the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts 
Bay, the Province of Maine and the territory east of 
it to the St. Croix, and Nova Scotia. Sir William 
Phipps, a native of Maine, arrived at Boston with 
this charter, on the 14th of May, 1692, at the 
same time bearing a commission as Governor of the 
" Province of Massachusetts Bay," — the name given 
in the new charter to the several jurisdictions united 
under it. 

There are other topics to which I had proposed to 
call your attention in connexion with a rapid review 
of the leading events in the early history of this State ; 
6 



66 DISCOURSE. 

but I have already trespassed too long upon the at- 
tention of the society, and shall conclude my 
remarks with a few words more in reference to the 
brave old knight who devoted the best part of a long 
life to efforts for the discovery and settlement of the 
territory of which this state originally consisted. 
Little is known of Sir Ferdinando Gorges before he 
engaged in that great work, but there is no doubt 
that he early distinguished himself in the public ser- 
vice, and received in reward of his services the honor 
of knighthood, which like other honors was sparingly 
bestowed by Queen Ehzabeth. The family of Gor- 
ges had an ancient seat at Wraxall in Somersetshire, 
six miles and a half from Bristol ; in the church at 
that place is a large altar tomb, with figures of Sir 
Edmund Gorges, K. B., and Anne, his wife, daughter 
of John Howard, the first Duke of Norfolk * In the 
same neighborhood, in the parish of Long Ashton, was 
the Manor of Ashton Philhps, belonging to Sir Fer- 
dinando. The village of Long Ashton lies on the 
southeast slope of an eminence called Ashton Hill, 
about five miles from Bristol, affording a fine drive 
from the city, as the road through the parish com- 
mands an extensive view of Bristol, Clifton, and a 
number of villages on the opposite banks of the 
Avon. In a valley to the southwest of the village is 

» They resided at Wraxhall as early as the year 1260, when Ralph de Gorges 
was governor of Sherburne Castle ; " from whose time the family hath been con- 
tinued there, and is lately [about the year 1700] reduced to an issue-female." 
Camden's Britannia, 2d edition. In 1350, one of the Russels of Gloucester- 
shire, " being enriched," says Camden, " by marriage with an heir of the honor- 
able family of the Gorges, assumed that name." This person was of the family 
of Russels since raised to the peerage. Lord Edward Gorges, an active member 
of the Council of Plymouth, and at one time its President, was evidently related 
to Sir Ferdinando ; he was of Wiltshire. 



DISCOURSE. 67 

the manor of Ashton Phillips. The manor-house is 
now in ruins ; it seems to have been a structure of 
considerable extent and grandeur, but only a small 
portion of the dwelling apartments, and the chapel 
remain. 

As early as 1597, we find him embarked in the 
expedition of the Earl of Essex against the Spanish 
islands, in the capacity of Serjeant Major, correspon- 
ding to the rank of senior colonel in the army, at 
the same time holding the office of Governor of the 
Forts at Plymouth. We next hear of him as 
a witness on the trial of the Earl of Essex for high 
treason, in the year 1600. The course taken by 
Gorges on that occasion must have been deeply 
painful to his feelings, and has subjected his memory 
to the reproaches of those writers who were more 
moved by sympathy for the unhappy fate of that 
illustrious nobleman, than governed by a strict regard 
to the circumstances of the case. No one can doubt 
on reading the accounts of this matter, that the 
designs of Essex were of a treasonable character, 
and that relying upon his great popularity, he hoped 
at least to overawe the queen, and drive his enemies 
from court. Great discontent prevailed generally 
among the nobility and gentry, of whom one hundred 
and twenty were believed to be favorable to the in- 
tended movement. In this number Gorges was 
reckoned, but although disposed to aid that noble- 
man in all lawful means for counteracting the ma- 
chinations of his enemies, it does not appear that he 
countenanced, or was even made acquainted with, 
any designs against the Queen. When called upon 
by the government in the course of the trial to slate 



68 DISCOURSE. 

more fully what had passed between him and the 
conspirators, he was urged both by Essex and the 
Earl of Southampton, (who was tried at the same 
time,) to state fully what he knew of their plans ; 
his reply was : — " Some delivered their minds one 
way, and some another ; but by the oath I have 
taken, I did never know or hear any thought or pur- 
pose of hurt or disloyalty intended to her Majesty's 
person by my Lord of Essex." 

In his testimony in chief he admitted that Essex 
had written to him, complaining of his misfortunes 
and expressing a determination to free himself from 
the malice of his enemies ; at the same time request- 
ing Sn- Ferdinando to come up to London, that he 
might confer with him. Gorges accordingly repaired 
to town, as he states, a week before the insurrection, 
and had several interviews with the Earl, when he 
endeavored to dissuade him from his imprudent de- 
signs, but all to no purpose. He did not, however, 
abandon him ; on the contrary, he was at Essex-house 
when the insurrection took place ; a large number of 
the conspirators, including several noblemen, were 
assembled there, undecided it would seem for a long 
time as to the course they should pursue. In the 
meantime. Sir Walter Raleigh, who was regarded by 
Essex as his greatest enemy, sent a messenger to 
Gorges at Essex-house, desiring to speak with him 
on the river ; and taking a boat from the garden, 
which appears to have extended down to the water's 
edge, beyond the west gate of the city. Sir Ferdinan- 
do, with the approbation of Essex, proceeded to meet 
Sir Walter, who earnestly advised him to withdraw 
from Essex house, as he valued his life. Raleigh 



DISCOURSE. 69 

also testified on the trial, that Gorges assured him it 
was likely to prove a bloody day's work, and desired 
him to go to Court that measures might be taken to 
prevent it. Gorges then returned to Essex house. 

In the meantime, the Queen being apprised of the 
assemblage at Essex house, resorted to an unusual 
step ; for instead of despatching a military force to 
disperse the conspirators, she sent four distinguished 
personages, members of the privy council, among 
whom was Chief Justice Popham, to Essex house to 
use their personal influence as well as the authority 
of their offices, to induce the malecontents to give 
over their designs. " All four had been chosen," says 
Southey, " not only because of their merit, but also 
because they were persons whom he was supposed 
both to respect, and to regard as friends." They 
found the gates shut, but were admitted wifhout their 
attendants except the pursebearer with the great seal, 
the Lord keeper being one of the four dignitaries, 
who appear to have gone in their official robes and 
badges of office. The leaders and their company 
were assembled in the court-yard, and crowded 
around the counsellors as they advanced towards the 
Earl of Essex, to whom the Lord keeper in a loud 
voice delivered the Queen's message, " that they 
were sent to learn the cause of so great a concourse 
of people, and let them know that they should be 
heard if they complained of any grievances they 
wished to have redressed." Essex replied in an 
angry tone, reciting the causes of his disaffection ; 
and the Earl of Southampton also addressed them 
in a similar strain. The lord chief justice then pro- 
mised that they would faithfully report their com- 
6* 



70 DISCOURSE, 

plaints to her Majesty. But a tumult arising among 
the crowd, the Lord keeper commanded all upon 
their allegiance to lay down their arms and depart. 
Essex thereupon went into the house, followed by the 
four counsellors, who desired a private interview 
with him ; but when they had entered his library, the 
Earl gave orders to fasten the doors, and committed 
them as prisoners to the charge of three persons, 
one of whom, named Salisbury, is said to have been 
a notorious robber, who " bore a special spleen 
against the lord chief justice." A guard was set by 
these persons at the door of the library, with loaded 
muskets and liohted matches. 

Essex then leaving his house in the charge of Sir 
Gilly Merrick, sallied forth with about 200 men, and 
entered the city by Ludgate, (which was not far from 
Essex-house,) uttering loud cries, the purport of which 
was that the Queen was in danger, and that " Eng- 
land w as bought and sold to the Spaniards." Hasten- 
ing along Chenpside, they came to the house of the 
Sheriff, on whom they seem to have reckoned, but 
that official made his escape by the back door of his 
house, and repaired to the lord mayor. Thus check- 
ed, and finding that not so much as one man of even 
the lowest quality joined them, Essex remained in the 
sheriff's house undecided which way he should turn. 

In the meantime, formal proclamation was made in 
another quarter of the city, denouncing Essex and 
his adherents as traitors ; who upon being informed 
of it rushed again into the streets, calling upon the 
citizens to arm ; but in vain. The only resource left 
to the unhappy Earl was to return to his own house, 
and endeavor to obtain pardon by means of the four 



DISCOURSE. 71 

members of the Council whom he had left there in 
confinement. But on reaching Ludgate, he found it 
guarded by a competent force, that refused to allow 
him to pass ; whereupon he gave Gorges a token, 
authorizing him to go alone to Essex-house and re- 
lease the Lord Chief Justice, and by his means inter- 
cede for pardon. Sir Ferdinando, finding that the 
Chief Justice refused his liberty unless the Lord 
keeper also were released, set all the four councillors 
free, and went with them by water to the court. * 
This prudent course on the part of Gorges probably 
saved him from the consequences of having followed 
the fortunes of Essex until they became desperate ; 
to have gone farther would have been madness. 

Meantime, after the sacrifice of several lives in 
their efibrts to escape from the city, Essex and his 
followers succeeded in reaching his house, which they 
at first proposed to defend, but finally surrendered, 
and were committed to the Tower and other prisons. 
In eleven days after the failure of this desperate en- 
terprise, the earls of Essex and Southampton were 
arraigned for high treason, and found guilty. A few 
days after, five of their associates. Sir Christopher 
Blount, Sir Charles Davers, Sir John Davis, Sir Gil- 
ly Merrick, and Henry Cuflfe, were also tried and 
convicted of the same oftencc. They all suffered 
death except the Earl of Southampton, who was final- 
ly pardoned. 

After these events Gorges appears to have return- 
ed to his government at Plymouth, where we have 
already seen that he was residing in 1605, when 

* Camden. Annales Pierum Ang. et Hib. 610. 



72 DISCOURSE. 

George Weymouth arrived at that port from his visit 
to Penobscot river, bringing with him the five Indi- 
ans who first turned the attention of Sir Ferdinando 
to the American coast. He is again noticed in the 
general histories of that period as the commander of 
one of the ships sent to the aid of the king of France 
in 1625; but as soon as it was suspected that they 
were to be used against the French Protestants, there 
was a general desertion of the officers and men, on 
which occasion Sir Ferdinando is described as hav- 
ing behaved with great spirit ; for abruptly breaking 
away from the rest of the fleet, he returned at once 
to England, at the hazard of incurring the displeasure 
of the king and his favorite Buckingham. 

It has already been stated that in the civil wars he 
took up arms in defence of his king. Towards the 
close of 1642^ when hostilities had just commenced, 
eflforts were made by the royal party to introduce 
troops into the city of Bristol, which had not yet ta- 
ken sides in the contest. For this purpose Sir Fer- 
dinando Gorges and Mr. Smith of Long Ashton, were 
deputed to wait on the mayor to obtain his consent ; 
but the application failed. The city was then invest- 
ed by a large force in the interest of the king, and 
soon after surrendered. In 1645, Cromwell recap- 
tured it by assault ; and it is stated by Josselyn, a 
contemporary writer, that Sir Ferdinando was plun- 
dered and thrown into prison. It is probable that he 
died soon after, for in the same year the following or- 
der was adopted by the court in his Province of 
Maine : " It is ordered, that Richard Vines shall have 
power to take into his possession the goods and chat- 
tels of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and to pay such debts 



DISCOURSE. 73 

as Sir Ferdinaiido is in any way indebted to any." At 
the same time a public fast was ordered to be " sol- 
emnly kept upon Thursday, 20th of November next, 
through this Province." Vines had been for many 
years the agent of Gorges in this country, before and 
after its settlement, and for at least fifteen years a 
resident on the west side of Saco river, on a patent 
granted him by the Council of Plymouth, now con- 
stituting the town of Biddeford. After the departure 
of Thomas Gorges, he was elected governor of the 
Province, and held that office until the death of his 
patron and friend, when he sold his patent and remo- 
ved to the island of Barbadoes. 

A grandson of the Lord Proprietor, Ferdinando 
Gorges, Esq., as we have already noticed, succeeded 
to the proprietorship of the Province, some time 
before the restoration of Charles II. To him we 
are indebted for the publication of his grandfather's 
Brief Narration, a work evidently written with a 
deep conviction of the future importance of these 
western shores, and illustrating the indomitable spirit 
of enterprise that distinguished its author to the 
very close of a long and useful life. 

I cannot, perhaps, more appropriately conclude 
these remarks than with this imperfect notice of the 
man who must ever be regarded as the most active 
and persevering of all the friends of American colo- 
nization, through periods of discouragement and 
difficulty; and especially as the Founder of this 
Commonwealth. In my humble opinion, Maine owes 
some public acknowledgment to the memory of Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, for having laid the foundation of 
its existence as a separate and independent commu- 



74 DISCOURSE. 

nity. In ancient times, we are told, the founders of 
colonies were deified by their successors ; this was 
doubtless an exaggerated expression of the proper 
feeling to be entertained for them. But it will not be 
denied that their services merit a substantial com- 
memoration at the hands of their posterity. Nor 
have our American republics altogether neglected to 
pay tributes of gratitude and admiration to the great 
and good men who had the forecast to scatter the 
seeds of future growth and prosperity within their 
borders. Bradford and Winthrop are names that will 
never die amongst their successors at Plymouth and 
Massachusetts Bay ; Pennsylvania will never forget her 
obligations to the illustrious Friend of humanity who 
peopled her wilderness ; nor will Georgia suffer the 
memory of the enlightened Oglethorpe to perish ; 
Maryland has stamped the name of Baltimore upon 
her brilliant commercial metropolis, and North 
Carolina has her " city of Raleigh," although the 
projected colony of Sir Walter proved a splendid 
failure. And shall Maine do nothing to mark her 
sense of the merits of the liberal patron and success- 
ful abettor of the first settlements within her limits — 
who expended a large fortune upon his projects of 
discovery and colonization — who, when the country 
was abandoned and denounced by others as too cold 
and dreary for human habitation, actually hired men 
to pass the winter here to prove the contrary — and 
who died without reaping any substantial return for 
all his labors and outlays, leaving only a legacy of 
law suits to his descendants ? It is time that justice 
was done to his memory. From the small be- 
ginning he made this community has become a wide- 



DISCOURSE. 75 

]y extended, populous and wealthy state — rich in 
her resources, and not less distinguished for the active 
enterprise and laborious industry of her population. 
She can well afford to honor the memory of the man 
who foresaw all this, and devoted the energies of a 
long life to its consummation. 

But the appeal is unneccessary ; for I address an 
association that has in its keeping the historical rep- 
utation of the State and its Founder, and that will 
not suffer to perish a single existing memorial of the 
services of those who led the way in planting religion 
and civilization upon these northern shores. The 
wilderness has budded and blossomed like the rose, 
and those who are now living reap the benefits of its 
changed condition. Let them not begrudge a hand- 
ful of its floral treasures to deck the tomb of the 
gallant old cavaher who sowed the seeds from which 
have sprung so much beauty and fragrance. 



■76 DISCOURSE. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



Page 14. At the period of ihe discovery of America, the Tartars had been driven 
from China, and the Khans were of course no longer at the head of its govern- 
ment. This revolution took place A. D., 1366. But this fact was then unknown 
in Europe ; and the only available source of knowledge respecting that vast em- 
pire seems to have been the travels of Marco Polo, whose visit to China preced- 
ed the age of Columbus by a period of two centuries. Strictly, the northern 
part of the country was then called Cathay, or Kathai, and the southern Mangi, 
or Mangee. Had Columbus succeeded in reaching China, his Arabian interpre- 
ters, would have been of course, useless to him. 

Page 15. The island of S. Joan is laid down on the map of Ortelius, in about 
latitude 56 degrees north. This writer professes to have seen a map of the 
world by Sebastian Cabot, which he cites among his authorities. " Sebastianus 
Cabotus, Venetus. Universaletn Tabulam, quam impressam teneis formis vidi- 
mus, sed sine nomine loci et impressoris." No such map is now extant. 

Pages 16 and 17. It appears that the first general name for all that portion of 
North America extending to the north of Florida, was Baccalaos, meaning the 
land or coast of codfish. Such was the interpretation given to the name by the 
Breton and Norman sailors, " La Coste des Molues." De Bry. Americcn Pars 
Quarta. p. 69. 

Next came the name of Norumbega, at one time of an application equally ex- 
tensive. This was followed by Cadie, or Acadie, which, however, soon divided 
the honor with Virginia. Virginia, in its turn, was cut up into North and South 
Virginia, and afterwards was still further limited to the country between Florida 
and Delaware Bay, North Virginia taking the names of New England and New 

Netherland. 

Page 22. An account of Weymouth's voyage was published the same year at 
London, and attracted public attention to a considerable degree. This work has 
been recently reprinted in the Collections of the Mass. Hist. Society, Vol. 28th, 
from a transcript procured in England by Mr. Sparks. The title of the book is 
as follows : — " A True Relation of the most prosperous Voyage made this pres- 
ent year, 1605, by Captain George Weymouth, in the discovery of the Land 
of Virginia, where he discovered, sixty miles up, a most excellent river ; togeth- 
er with a most fertile land. Written by James Rosier, a gentleman employed 
in the voyage. London ; Impensis Geor. Bishop. 1605." The chapter in 
Purchas containing extracts from this work, has additional particulars of the voy- 



DISCOURSE. 77 

age, derived doubtless from oral or other communications made to the author by 
the navigators on their return to England, The patron of the enterprise was 
Lord Arundel of Wardour, created Count of the Empire by Rodolph II. Em- 
peror of Germany, for his gallant services against the Turks. 

Pages 24. 25. " In the south chafei. of this church [of Wellington] tberfe is a 
magnificent tomb, erected in honor of Sir John Popham, lord chief justice of 
England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It is surrounded by a handsome 
pallisado of wood and iron. On the table of the monument are the effigies of 
Sir John Popham and his lady. He is dressed in his judge's robes, chain, and 
small square cap. He reclines with his head towards the west. On the lower 
basement, at the head and feet, are four smaller figures of two men and two 
women, kneeling face to face. On the north side are five boys and eigVit girls, 
dressed in black, kneeling in a row. On the south side are nine women, kneel- 
ing in the same manner. Over Sir John and his lady is a superb arched cano- 
py, beautifully ornamented with the family arms, roses, paintings, and obelisks. 
The whole is supported by eight round columns of black marble, five feet high, 
with Corinthian capitals, green and gilt. On the west side of this canopy is the 
following inscription : — 

' Sir John Popham, knighte. Lord Chief Justice of England ; and of the hon- 
ourable privie counsel to Queen Elizabeth, and after to king James ; died the 
tenth of June, 1607, aged seventy-six, and is here interred.' 

" It may not be improper to remark here, that Sir John Popham was one of the 
most upright and able judges that ever sat upon the English bench. He was a 
native of Huntwith, in this county [Somersetshire], and educated chiefly at Ba- 
liol College, in Oxford. From hence he removed to the Temple, and was ad- 
mitted barrister in 1568. He was afterwards successively serjeant at law, solici- 
tor-general, and attorney-general, previous to his ultimate promotion, which 
took place in 1592. Sir John was a munificent patron to Welhngton, Here he 
built a large and elegant house, for his own residence, which was converted into 
a garrison for the use of the parliamentary army, in the time of Oliver Cromwell. 
It was soon after besieged by the royalists, and so completely ruined during the 
contest, that it was never attempted to be repaired. He also erected an hospital 
at the west end of the town, for twelve old and infirm persons, the one half being 
men, and the other women. Two children were also to be educated here. It is 
still standing [1813], and the charity applied. Sir John endowed it with an es- 
tate in land, wliich is now vested in the governors." The Beauties of England 
and Wales, &,c. by Rev. J. Nightingale, vol. 13th, Art. SoMEF.SETsnmE. 

Aubrey, whose notices of Eminent Men are a repository of contemporary 
Bcandal, sa)'s that for several years after Popham entered the legal profession, he 
" addicted himself but little to the studie of the lawes, but profligate company, 
and was wont to take a purse with them. His wife considered her and liis con- 
dition, and at last prevailed with him to lead another life, and to stick to the 
study of the lawe ; which, upon her importunity, he did, being then about thirtie 
years old. He spake to his wife to provide a very good entertainment for his 
camerades to take his leave of them ; and after that day fell extremely hard to 
his studie, and profited exceedingly. He was a strong, stout man, and coidd 

7 



78 DISCOURSE. 

endure to sit at it day and night ; became eminent at his calling, had good prac- 
tice, was called to be a serjeant [at law], a judge." Vol. 2. p. 492. 

Then follows a story of the judge having been bribed to save the life of a 
man tried for infanticide ; but the manner in which he was able to effect such a 
resulti is not stated. The annotator remarks, that " Sir John Popham gave 
sentence according to lawe, but being a great person and a favorite, he procured 
a noli prosequi." 

The author of the Discourse on Sir W. Raleigh, referred to in the text, in his 
zeal to vindicate his hero, does not hesitate to charge the chief justice with 
" taking purses on the highway, and bribes on the bench," on the sole authority 
of the gossiping writer above cited. The reader will be able to satisfy his own 
mind, probably, without much trouble, as to the probability of those charges 
being well founded. 

Grahame, Hist. U. S. is also disposed to treat the chief justice with some 
harshness, for the same cause, namely, his supposed readiness to have Raleigh 
convicted. But that author should have recollected that it was to one of his 
own nation that Sir Walter owed all his misfortunes, namely, king James, the 
Sixth of Scotland. 

Pages 56. 57. Morton devotes a chapter of his " New English Canaan" to 
Sir Christopher Gardiner, whom he characterizes as " a knight, that had been 
a traveller, both by sea and land ; a good judicious gentleman in the mathema- 
ticks and other sciences useful for plantations, chimistry, &c. and also being a 
practical Engineer ; he came into those parts intending discovery." p. 182. 
Again, he says, " Sir Christopher was gone with a guide (a salvage) into the in- 
land parts for discoveiy ; but before he was returned, he met with a salvage that 
told the guide. Sir Christopher would be killed," &c. But he, "finding how 
they had used him, with such disrespect, took shipping, and disposed of himself 
for England, and discovered their practices in those parts towards his Majestie's 
true-hearted subjects, whom they made wary of their abode in those parts." 

Morton's testimony will of course pass for what it is worth. Sir Christopher 
and himself both incurred the displeasure of the puritan fathers, and joined com- 
mon cause together in opposing their interests in England ; but it is always best 
to hear both sides of a case. It must be allowed that the treatment of these 
gentlemen was rigorous in the extreme, considering that their chief offence con- 
sisted in not harmonizing in sentiment with the people among whom they 
were thrown. 

Pages 59, 64. Sir Thomas Josselyn, named in the first charter of Maine at the 
head of the CommissionerS'to organize the government, was the father of Henry 
Josselyn, Esq., of Black Point, (now Scarborough,) and of John Josselyn, Gent., 
the traveller, whose two voyages to New England are often quoted in connexion 
with its early history. This appears from Morton, who speaking of the " Ero- 
coise Lake," [Lake Champlain], says, "A more complete discovery of those 
parts is (to my knowledge) undertaken by Henry Joseline, Esquire, son of Sir 
Thomas Joseline, ot Kent, knight, by the approbation and appointment of that 
fceroic and very good Commonwealth's man. Captain John Mason, Esquire, a 



DISCOURSE. 79 

true foster-father and lover of virtue, who at his own charge hath fitted Master 
JoseHne, and employed him to that purpose," &c. New English Canaan, pp. 
98, 99. 

Henry Josselyn resided many years at Black Point, and was highly respected 
as a magistrate. He succeeded Mr. Vines as Governor of the Province, in 1G45. 

I cannot conclude this note without expressing my sincere acknowledgments 
to Henry Brevoort, Esq., of the city of New York, for the loan of a copy of 
Morton's Neio English Canaan, now a very rare book. 

Page 65. The following Petition, signed by one hundred and fifteen inhabi- 
tants of Maine, was transmitted to England about the year 1680. 

" To the King's most excellent Majesty, the humble Petition of your Majes- 
ty's freeborn subjects, the inhabitants of the Province of Maine in New England. 

Humbly Sheweth, That your Majesty's Father, of ever blessed memory, by 
his letters patent, bearing date at Westminster, in the 15th year of his reign, 
did grant unto Sir Ferdinando Gorges, his heirs and assigns, that tract of land 
called the Province of Maine, making the same equal with the Palatinate of 
Durham, and to enjoy the like privileges to lay out and grant townships, to dis- 
pose of lands not disposed of before, and that no laws be exercised in the Province 
but such as were made and consented to by your Majesty's freeholders inhabiting 
said Province. And that your petitioners, upon these invitations and encourage- 
ments, did settle in the said Province in great numbers, and in short time increas- 
ed unto several townships, having amongst us several Courts of Judicature and 
Records, and for divers years were governed according to their laws, (agreeable 
to the laws of England,) made by the Commissioners of Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
and the freeholders therein. 

That the Bostoners, under the pretence of an imaginary patent line, did invade 
our right and privileges, erecting their own authority by causing the inhabitants 
to swear fidelity to their government. That about the year 1661, upon our hum- 
ble representation of these matters, your Majesty was graciously pleased by your 
royal authority, by your royal letters of 1664 to that government, to require them 
not farther to disturb nor meddle in the Province, which they then refused to 
obey. 

Whereupon your Petitioners representing their grievances to your Majesty's 
Commissioners in 1665, they solemnly restored and re-established your IVIajesty's 
authority amongst us, by which we administered the oaths of allegiance, and pro- 
ceeded to govern and y to our former laws, and so continued till about 

the year 1663, when Maj. Leveret, Waldron, and others, entered upon the Pro- 
vince, and with force of arms disturbed the inhabitants, then at a Court holden 
for your Majesty, at York,* in your Majesty's Province of Maine, commanding 
all proceedings for the future to be managed by their own authority and laws. 
Since which time, notwithstanding the great loss sustained by the late Indian war, 
we are still oppressed by heavy rates and taxes, imposing the sum of £3000, and 
upwards, to be collected and paid by the inhabitants of three towns^ (viz.) York, 
Wells, and Kittery. 



Previously called Agamenticus, and, by its city charter, Gorgeana. 



80 DISCOURSE. 

Your Petitioners humbly pray your Majesty to take the premises into your 
royal consideration, and by your gracious letters to re-establish and confirm us 
under your royal authority, granting liberty to tender consciences to empower 
such whose names we here humbly represent to govern according to the laws and 
constitutions of this your Majesty's Province, until your Majesty's pleasure be 
further known therein, to which we shall in all readiness and duty submit. 

And your Petitioners shall ever pray." 

See the names of the petitioners, 1 Maine Hist. Coll. 303, 304. 

The correspondence between Edward Godfrey and the Secretary of Massachu- 
setts, is published in 1 Hazard's State Papers. In answer to what was said by the 
Secretary respecting the favors to be conferred on the people of Maine by their 
coming under the jurisdiction of that colony, Godfrey remarks — "As for showing 
your favors to us, by your favor, gentlemen, we are loth to part with our precious 
liberties for unknown and uncertain favors. We resolve to exercise our just ju- 
risdiction till it shall please the Parliament, the Common Weal of England, 
otherwise to order, under whose power and protection we are." 

See also a Report of a Committee of Reference on the petition of Robert 
Mason, Edward Godfrey, and others, to the King, in 1G61, published in the ap- 
pendix to Belknap's iVeu) Hampshire, No. 16. 

Page 72. Rosier, in his description of Weymouth's voyage, has recorded the 
names of the Indians carried to England, from the coast of Maine ; he says, 
" The names of the five savages which we brought home into England, which 
are all yet alive, are these : 

1. Tahanedo, a sagamore or commander. 

2. Amoret, ^ 

2. Skicowakos, V Gentlemen. 

4. Maneddo, y 

5. SArFAcoMOiT, a servant." 

Gorges gives the following as the names of those among them that were com- 
mitted to his charge : Manida, Skettwarroes, and Tasquantum. Brief Nar- 
ration, Chap. 2. 

Page 72. Admiral Pennington had the command of the ships that were to be 
delivered to the French. On ascertaining, on his arrival at Dieppe, the destina- 
tion of the ships, he returned to England ; but receiving fresh orders to the same 
effect as before, " he went back to Dieppe," says Rushworth, " and put the Vant- 
guard into the absolute power and command of the French King, to be employed in 
his service at pleasure, and commanded the rest of the fleet to the like surrender. 
At the first, the Captains, Masters, and Owners refused to yield, weighed anchor, 
and were making away ; but when Pennington shot, they came in again, but 
Sir Ferdinando Gorges came away with the ship called the Neptune." Rush- 
worth. Hist. Coll. 176. 



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